EDMUND  deS.  and  MARY  V.  BRUNNER 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 


The  top  picture  shows  a  little  school  at  Silverado, 
in  a  dry-farming  section  of  Orange  County.  Below 
is  the  splendid  school  at  Tustin  in  the  heart  of  the 
county's  irrigated  region.  The  center  picture  shows 
what  makes  contrasts  like  this  possible — the  irrigation 
dam  at  La  Grange 


COMMITTEE  ON  SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  SURVEYS 

TOWN    AND   COUNTRY  DEPARTMENT 

EDMUND  DES.  BRUNNER,  Director 


IRRIGATION     AND 
RELIGION/ 

A  STUDY  OF 

RELIGIOUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 
IN  TWO  CALIFORNIA  COUNTIES 

BY 

EDMUND  DES.  AND  MARY  V.  BRUNNER 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 
MAPS  AND  CHARTS 


)/W~ 

NEW  ^ST  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,    1922, 
BY  GEORGE   H.   DORAN    COMPANY 


PRINTED   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 


PREFACE 

THE  Committee  on  Social  and  Religious  Surveys  was  organ- 
ized in  January,  1921.  Its  aim  is  to  combine  the  scientific 
method  with  the  religious  motive.  The  Committee  conducts 
and  publishes  studies  and  surveys  and  promotes  conferences  for 
their  consideration.  It  cooperates  with  other  social  and  religious 
agencies,  but  is  itself  an  independent  organization. 

The  Committee  is  composed  of:  John  R.  Mott,  Chairman; 
Ernest  D.  Burton,  Secretary;  Raymond  B.  Fosdick,  Treasurer; 
James  L.  Barton  and  W.  H.  P.  Faunce.  Galen  M.  Fisher  is  Asso- 
ciate Executive  Secretary.  The  offices  are  at  in  Fifth  Avenue, 
New  York  City. 

In  the  field  of  town  and  country  the  Committee  sought  first 
of  all  to  conserve  some  of  the  results  of  the  surveys  made  by  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement.  In  order  to  verify  some  of  these 
surveys,  it  carried  on  field  studies,  described  later,  along  regional 
lines  worked  out  by  Dr.  Warren  H.  Wilson1  and  adopted  by  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement.  These  regions  are : 

I.  Colonial  States:  All  of  New  England,  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  Jersey. 

II.  The  South:  All  the  States  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
and  the  Ohio  River  east  of  the  Mississippi,  including  Louisiana. 

III.  The  Southern  Highlands  Section:  This  section  comprises 
about  250  counties  in  "The  back  yards  of  eight  Southern  States." 

IV.  The  Middle  West :  The  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan, 
Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Iowa  and  northern  Missouri. 

V.  Northwest:   Minnesota,   North   Dakota,   South  Dakota  and 
eastern  Montana. 

VI.  Prairie:  Oklahoma,  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 

VII.  Southwest :  Southern  Missouri,  Arkansas  and  Texas. 

VIII.  Range  or  Mountain:  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Utah,  Colo- 
rado, Idaho,  Wyoming,  Nevada  and  western  Montana. 

IX.  Pacific :  California,  Oregon  and  Washington. 

1  See  Wilson,  "Sectional  Characteristics,"  Homelands,  August,  1920. 


PREFACE 

Hundreds  of  people  assisted  in  the  survey  process,  but  certain 
specific  acknowledgments  are  due  to  those  who  assisted  in  the 
survey  of  the  counties  presented  in  this  volume,  Orange  and  Stanis- 
laus, California: 

The  Director  of  the  Town  and  Country  Survey  Department 
for  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  was  Edmund  deS.  Brunner. 
He  is  likewise  the  Director  of  this  Department  for  the  Committee 
on  Social  and  Religious  Surveys. 

The  original  surveys  of  these  counties  were  under  the  direction 
of  the  Rev.  J.  Clarence  Pinkerton,  Secretary  of  the  California  State 
Federation  of  Churches.  He  was  assisted  in  Stanislaus  County  by 
the  Rev.  W.  P.  Stanley  and  in  Orange  County  by  Mr.  Arthur  F. 
Torrance.  The  work  in  both  these  counties  was  done  in  1919. 

The  field  workers  of  the  Committee  on  Social  and  Religious 
Surveys  were  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Edmund  deS.  Brunner.  During 
the  summer  of  1921  they  visited  these  counties  and  carried  through 
practically  a  new  survey,  bringing  up  to  date  the  information  pre- 
viously obtained.  They  are  also  the  authors  of  this  report. 

In  Stanislaus  County  they  were  assisted  for  several  days  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  David  D.  Montgomery,  Secretary  of  Home  Missions 
for  the  San  Joaquin  Presbytery,  and  the  Rev.  Jessie  Marhoff,  Sun- 
day School  Missionary  for  the  same  Presbytery. 

In  Orange  County  Miss  F.  Catherine  Smiley,  M.A.,  author  of 
"An  Educational  Survey  of  Orange  County,  California,"  assisted 
with  the  field  investigation. 

The  statistical  and  graphical  editor  of  this  volume  was  Mr.  A. 
H.  Richardson,  of  the  Chief  Statistician's  Division  of  the  Ameri- 
can Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company,  formerly  connected  with 
the  Russell  Sage  Foundation. 

The  technical  advisor  was  Mr.  H.  N.  Morse  of  the  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Home  Missions,  who  was  also  associate  director  of  the 
Town  and  Country  Survey  in  the  Interchurch  World  Movement. 

Valuable  help  was  given  by  the  Home  Missions  Council;  by  the 
Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions  through  their  sub-Com- 
mittee on  Town  and  Country,  and  by  a  Committee  appointed  jointly 
by  the  Home  Missions  Council  and  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches 
for  the  purpose  of  cooperating  with  the  Committee  on  Social  and 
Religious  Surveys  in  endeavoring  to  translate  the  results  of  the 
survey  into  action.  The  members  of  this  Joint  Committee  on 
Utilizing  Surveys  are: 


PREFACE 

Representing  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches 
Anna  Clark  C.  N.  Lathrop 

Roy  B.  Guild  U.  L.  Mackey 

A.  E.  Holt  A.  E.  Roberts 

F.  Ernst  Johnson  Fred  B.  Smith 

Charles  E.  Schaeffer 

Representing   the   Home   Missions    Council   and    the    Council   of 
Women  for  Home  Missions 

L.  C.  Barnes,  Chairman 
Rodney  W.  Roundy,  Secretary 

Alfred  W.  Anthony  Rolvix  Harlan 

Mrs.  Fred  S.  Bennett  R.  A.  Hutchison 

C.  A.  Brooks  Florence  E.  Quinlan 

C.  E.  Burton  W.  P.  Shriver 

A.  E.  Cory  Paul  L.  Vogt 

David  D.  Forsyth  Warren  H.  Wilson 


CONTENTS 


PAGR 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW   .....      0     ....  n 

CHAPTER 

I     INTRODUCING  THE  COUNTIES 15 

II     SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS    .........  26 

III  COUNTY-WIDE  AGENCIES 33 

IV  THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  GENERAL 45 

V    CHURCH  ^EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 48 

VI     THE    MINISTERS 60 

VII     CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 65 

VIII     THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  CHURCHES 76 

IX     THE  JAPANESE  PROBLEM 86 

X    THE  SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  AMONG  OTHER 

FOREIGN-BORN   GROUPS 92 

XI     OTHER  RELIGIOUS  WORK 99 

XII     CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 101 

APPENDIX  I:  METHODOLOGY  AND  DEFINITIONS   .      .      .  119 

APPENDIX  II :  STATISTICAL  TABLES 123 

BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                                   .  128 


ILLUSTRATIONS,  MAPS  AND  CHARTS 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

RELIGION  AND  EDUCATION  ARE  VITALLY  AFFECTED  BY  ECO- 
NOMIC DEVELOPMENT Frontispiece 

WHERE  FARMING  PAYS 17 

ORANGE  COUNTY'S  GREAT  INDUSTRIES 18 

IN  THE  SUGAR  BEET  FIELDS 20 

READY  FOR  THE  EASTERN  MARKET 25 

BUILT  WITH  WATER 27 

THE  TEACHERAGE  AT  TUSTIN,  ORANGE  COUNTY       ...  34 

THE  PRIZE  SCHOOL  OF  ORANGE  COUNTY 35 

OFF  TO  SCHOOL 36 

CROWS'S   LANDING   GRADE   SCHOOL 37 

STANISLAUS  COUNTY'S  PREMIER  SCHOOL 37 

A  DEPARTURE  FROM  THE  CONVENTIONAL     .......  48 

A  CITY  CHURCH  AND  A  TOWN  CHURCH 49 

HUNTINGTON  BEACH  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  ...  51 

THE  CHURCH  HOME  OF  A  FOREIGN-SPEAKING  GROUP  ...  54 

"HONOR  KNIGHTS" 78 

COMMUNITY  CHURCH,  PLACENTIA,  ORANGE  COUNTY  ...  83 

BUILT  BY  A  BIBLE  CLASS 84 

A  JAPANESE  SCHOOL  IN  ORANGE  COUNTY 88 

OLD  AND  NEW 94~95 

MEXICAN  METHODISTS 97 

THE  OLDEST  BUILDING  IN  CALIFORNIA 100 


ILLUSTRATIONS,  MAPS  AND  CHARTS 
MAPS 

FACE 

CALIFORNIA:  LOCATING  THE  Two  COUNTIES 12 

CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY   MAP   OF   STANISLAUS   COUNTY, 

CALIFORNIA 71 

CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  MAP  OF  ORANGE  COUNTY,  CALI- 
FORNIA     74-75 

CHARTS 

I     EFFECT  OF  SYSTEM  IN  CHURCH  FINANCE 53 

II     How  THE  CHURCH  DOLLAR  is  RAISED 55 

III  How  THE  CHURCH  DOLLAR  is  EXPENDED 56 

IV  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  MEMBERS  IN  POPULATION  ...  65 
V     RESIDENCE  AND  ACTIVITY  OF  CHURCH  MEMBERS  ...  66 

VI     RELATION  OF  SIZE  OF  CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  TO  GAIN  69 


vm 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 


IRRIGATION    AND 
RELIGION 

THE  POINT  OF  VIEW 

THIS  book  is  a  study  of  the  work  of  town  and  country  churches 
in  two  of  California's  richest  counties.  Its  purpose  is  to 
show  the  effect  of  prosperity  upon  the  life  of  the  church  by 
describing  the  interaction  of  the  church  upon  these  communities 
and  of  these  communities  upon  the  church.  This  survey,  therefore* 
does  not  attempt  to  deal  directly  with  the  spiritual  effect  of  any 
church  upon  the  life  of  individuals  or  groups.  Such  results  are 
not  measurable  by  the  foot  rule  of  statistics  or  by  survey  methods. 
It  is  possible,  however,  to  weigh  the  concrete  accomplishments  of 
churches.  These  actual  achievements  are  their  fruits  and  "by  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

The  two  counties  studied  in  this  book  are  Orange  and  Stanislaus, 
California.  Many  considerations  entered  into  their  choice.  For 
one  thing,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  book,  while  complete 
in  itself,  is  also  part  of  a  larger  whole.  From  among  the  one 
thousand  county  surveys  completed  or  nearly  completed  by  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement,  twenty-six  counties  situated  in  the 
nine  most  representative  rural  regions  of  America  were  selected 
for  intensive  study.  In  this  way  it  was  hoped  to  obtain  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  religious  situation  as  it  exists  in  the  more  rural 
areas  of  the  United  States.  All  the  counties  selected  were  chosen 
with  the  idea  that  they  were  fair  specimens  of  what  was  to  be  found 
throughout  the  area  of  which  they  were  a  part. 

In  selecting  the  counties  an  effort  was  made  to  discover  those 
which  were  typical  not  merely  from  a  statistical  standpoint  but  also 
from  the  social  and  religious  problems  they  represented.  For 
example,  the  two  California  counties  described  in  this  pamphlet 
were  chosen  because  they  are  representative  of  large  sections  along 
the  Pacific  Coast  that  have  been  made  rich  and  fertile  by  irrigation. 

It  is  recognized  that  there  are  reasons  why  exceptions  may  be 
taken  to  the  choice  of  counties.  No  area  is  completely  typical 

11 


<    1   »  if  •?  K  to 

Scale   of  Miles. 


CALIFORNIA  :    LOCATING   THE  TWO  COUNTIES 


12 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW 

of  every  situation.  A  careful  study  of  these  counties,  however, 
leads  inevitably  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are  fair  specimens  of  the 
region  they  are  intended  to  represent. 

All  the  studies  have  been  made  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Church,  recognizing,  however,  that  social  and  economic  conditions 
affect  the  church  life.  For  instance,  it  is  evident  that  various  racial 
groups  affect  church  life  differently.  Germans  and  Swedes  usually 
tend  toward  liturgical  denominations ;  the  Scotch  to  non-liturgical. 
Again,  if  there  is  economic  pressure  and  heavy  debt,  the  Church 
faces  spiritual  handicaps  and  needs  a  peculiar  type  of  ministry. 
Because  of  the  importance  of  social  and  economic  factors  in  the 
life  of  the  Church  the  opening  chapters  of  this  book  have  been  given 
over  to  a  description  of  these  factors.  At  the  first  glance  some  of 
these  facts  may  appear  irrelevant  but  upon  closer  observation  will 
be  found  to  have  a  bearing  upon  the  main  theme — the  problem  of 
the  Church. 

Naturally  the  greatest  amount  of  time  and  study  has  been 
devoted  to  the  churches  themselves ;  their  history,  equipment  and 
finances;  their  members,  services  and  church  organizations;  their 
Sunday  schools,  young  people's  societies  and  community  programs 
have  all  been  carefully  investigated  and  evaluated. 

Intensive  investigation  has  been  limited  to  the  distinctly  rural 
areas  and  to  those  centers  of  population  which  have  less  than 
five  thousand  inhabitants.  In  the  case  of  towns  larger  than  this  an 
effort  has  been  made  to  measure  the  service  of  such  towns  to  the 
surrounding  countryside  but  not  to  study  each  church  and  com- 
munity in  detail. 

The  aim  of  the  survey  is  practical.  It  is  hoped  that  it  will  prove 
of  value  not  only  to  the  churches  and  communities  surveyed  and 
to  church  boards  and  societies  operating  therein,  but  also  to  social 
and  educational  agencies  which  are  interested  in  rural  work 
generally.  It  is  also  believed  that  the  situations  discovered  and  the 
problems  emerging  in  each  of  the  surveys  will  be  found  to  bear 
sufficient  resemblance  to  those  in  other  counties  within  the  same 
region,  as  to  render  the  policies  and  programs  proposed  of  definite 
value  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  areas  that  have  been  intensively 
studied. 


13 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCING  THE  COUNTIES 

THE  STATE 

CALIFORNIA  is  the  country  with  a  buried  past.     Seldom 
indeed  does  the  traveller  come  across  traces  of  the  wild  days 
of  the  gold   seeker  and  the  picturesque   Spanish  Mission 
Churches  are  the  only  relics  of  that  far-off  time  when  Franciscan 
friars  sought  to  create  a  New  Spain  among  the  simple  Indians  of 
Southern  California. 

Today  California  is  attracting  a  new  type  of  gold  seeker.  The 
wealth  for  which  he  strives  is  produced  by  the  alchemy  of  irriga- 
tion. More  than  half  of  California's  nearly  $600,000,000  worth  of 
agricultural  products  is  grown  on  irrigated  farms  although  these 
comprise  less  than  one  twentieth  of  the  total  land  area  of  the  state 
and  but  a  third  of  all  improved  land  in  farms.1 

LOCATION  OF  COUNTIES 

The  two  counties  selected  for  study  well  illustrate  the  changes 
that  irrigation  has  brought  and  the  prosperity  that  has  come  to  those 
who  have  utilized  its  advantages.  Stanislaus  County  lies  toward 
the  north  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  one  hundred  and  twelve  miles 
southeast  of  San  Francisco.  The  foothills  of  California's  two 
mountain  chains,  the  Coast  Range  and  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  rise 
along  its  western  and  eastern  boundaries  respectively.  A  little  more 
than  half  of  the  county's  1450  square  miles  are  subject  to  irrigation. 
Modesto  is  the  county  seat.  Orange  County  is  located  immediately 
south  of  Los  Angeles  and  within  its  795  square  miles  is  one  of  the 
most  fertile  sections  in  America.  Santa  Ana  is  its  county  seat 
In  the  eastern  states  there  are  some  counties  of  the  same  name  but 
theirs  is  a  name  that  goes  back  to  the  history  of  the  Old  World  and 
the  days  of  the  Orangemen.  This  county  takes  its  name  from  the 
fruit  which  has  made  it  famous  and  prosperous.  Its  western  border 
is  the  Pacific  ocean.  On  the  east  is  the  Coast  range,  some  of  the 
peaks  of  which  rise  to  a  mile  or  more  above  sea  level. 

1  Bulletins   1920  Census,  "Agriculture :   California"  and  "Irrigation :  Cali- 
fornia." 

15 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 


HISTORY 

Stanislaus  County  is  more  typical  of  the  history  of  California 
than  Orange.  Its  first  settlers  were  gold  seekers,  the  metal  having 
been  discovered  there  in  1852.  Three  years  later  the  county  was 
incorporated.  What  is  now  its  least  prosperous  section  was  then 
feverishly  busy  with  the  search  for  gold.  Hamlets  that  today  have 
but  a  few  hundred  inhabitants  had  then  more  than  a  thousand.  It 
was  from  the  gold  camps  in  the  foothills  of  the  Sierras  that  the 
first  settlers  went  down  into  the  plains  and  began  farming.  Wheat 
was  then  the  chief  crop.  Dry  farming  was  necessary  and  individual 
holdings  ran  into  hundreds  and  even  thousands  of  acres.  Irrigation 
came  with  the  twentieth  century  and  the  population  which  had  begun 
to  decrease,  rose  at  a  phenomenal  rate.  The  size  of  farms  decreased, 
and  now  average  twenty  acres  in  the  irrigated  sections.  New 
communities  were  founded.  It  was  a  boom  and  one  which  has 
created  permanent  values.  What  happened  is  well  illustrated  by 
Turlock.  Fifteen  or  sixteen  years  ago  it  was  a  straggling  little 
hamlet  of  150  people.  Today  it  is  a  city  with  paved  streets,  parks, 
churches,  fine  schools  and  a  population  of  3500  with  twice  as  many 
more  on  the  farms  tributary  to  the  town.  The  development,  there- 
fore, is  not  over.  It  is  of  the  present. 

Orange  County  has  had  a  longer  history  and  a  less  spectacular 
agricultural  development.  It  was  not  always  an  agricultural  El- 
dorado. The  Spanish  priests  who  first  settled  in  its  southwestern 
part  saw  a  dreary  desert  of  cactus  and  sage  brush  and  only  a  few 
trees  along  the  water  courses.  Such  was  the  country  in  which,  in 
1776,  that  these  priests  founded  a  mission  among  the  Indians  at 
San  Juan  Capistranto.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  same  century 
and  the  early  years  of  the  next,  a  few  Spanish  soldiers  also  settled 
in  the  district.  The  only  occupation  was  stock  raising  conducted 
upon  great  ranches.  The  county  did  not  share  in  the  gold  rush  of 
1849.  In  J857  a  colony  of  Germans  settled  in  what  is  now  Anaheim, 
where  they  had  procured  nearly  two  square  miles.  They  constructed 
irrigation  works  and  planted  vineyards,  but  when  their  vines  were 
destroyed  by  a  root  disease  in  the  late  eighties  the  attention  of  the 
growers  was  turned  to  citrus  fruit.  From  then  on  the  development 
was  more  rapid.  Irrigation  projects  increased  and  at  the  same  time 
drainage  converted  swamps  into  fertile  fields.  Products  multiplied 
both  in  kind  and  in  quantity.  The  region  now  known  as  Orange 
County  was  set  off  from  Los  Angeles  County  in  1889  and  separately 

16 


INTRODUCING  THE  COUNTIES 

organized.  Hardly  a  decade  later  the  first  oil  was  discovered.  This 
industry  has  now  grown  until  it  is  almost  as  important  as  that  of 
agriculture.  In  some  communities  it  has  brought  boom  conditions. 

TRANSPORTATION 

Both  counties  have  good  transportation  facilities.  Automobile 
stages  connect  outlying  points  while  steam  or  electric  lines  or  both 
reach  all  the  important  centers.  Automobile  travel  is  easy,  all 
the  most  important  roads  being  hard  surfaced.  Both  counties  have 
spent  millions  on  their  highways.  In  the  north  the  traveller  speeds 
through  fig  or  peach  orchards,  past  alfalfa  fields  and  vineyards. 


till '1  Jill 

.  • . 


WHERE  FARMING   PAYS 

This  beautiful   farm   house   in   Orange   County    is  sufficient   testimony   to   what   irrigation 

can  do  for  the  farmer 

Yonder  he  sees  a  splendid  herd  of  pure  bred,  registered  cattle.  He 
passes  a  succession  of  small,  intensively  cultivated  farms,  good 
schools,  trim  compact  villages.  The  homes  of  native  and  foreign 
born  alike  seem  for  the  most  part  neat  and  well  kept.  His  road 
parallels  an  irrigation  ditch  and  he  sees  some  land-owner  in  the 
process  of  flooding  his  acres  with  the  wealth-bringing  water.  Great 
trucks  come  lumbering  by  loaded  with  melons  of  various  kinds  on 
their  way  to  the  cooperative  packing  house  at  the  village  center. 
He  looks  off  in  the  distance.  The  heavily  foliaged  trees  winding 
irregularly  across  the  landscape  mark  the  course  of  one  of  the  rivers. 
Further  away  rise  the  foothills  of  the  Sierras.  He  draws  nearer 
to  these  and  suddenly  everything  changes.  Great  fields  stretch  away 
before  him.  Hardly  a  house  is  to  be  seen.  In  the  distance  is  a  one- 

17 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

room  school  house.  The  hamlet  through  which  he  passes,  once  the 
county  seat  with  nearly  2000  inhabitants,  has  but  a  few  houses,  a 
garage,  an  ill-kept  hotel  and  a  deserted,  dirty  pool-room  and  soft 
drink  parlor.  Nearby  are  piles  of  rock,  the  sign  of  bygone  dredging 
for  gold.  He  is  in  the  presence  of  the  California  that  has  gone  and 
around  him  is  the  California  that  is  passing,  as  irrigation  redeems 
more  and  more  acres  from  dry  farming.  He  has  discovered  the 
forgotten  past. 

In  the  southern  county  the  aspect  is  much  the  same  save  that 
here  there  are  orange  and  walnut  groves  and  fields  of  lima  beans 


ORANGE  COUNTY'S  GREAT  INDUSTRIES 

An  oil  field  and  an  orange  grove 

or  sugar  beets.  The  villages  and  towns  are  larger  and  there  are 
more  of  them.  From  the  coast  road  may  be  seen  the  deep  blue 
Pacific  lazily  breaking  on  the  shore.  Heading  inland  the  traveller 
sees  clusters  of  oil  derricks,  some  rising  out  of  the  orange  groves. 
Gradually  he  comes  to  the  foothills,  and  enters  some  canyon  where 
the  rugged  beauty  of  the  mountains  shuts  out  the  work-a-day  world 
below. 

In  both  counties  the  cities  show  they  are  but  the  service  stations 
of  the  farmers.  Their  main  industries  are  canneries,  creameries, 
and  packing  houses.  The  attractiveness  of  many  of  the  cooperative 
packing  houses  impresses  anyone  used  to  the  dinginess  of  the  average 
factory. 

18 


INTRODUCING  THE  COUNTIES 

Social  and  religious  agencies  have  been  faced  in  these  counties 
with  the  comparatively  sudden  transition  from  the  extensive  type 
of  farming  with  a  small  population  to  the  irrigated  type  with  smaller 
farms,  an  increased  population  and  prosperity.  What  this  has  meant 
in  concrete  terms  is  shown  by  a  consideration  of  a  few  of  the 
outstanding  facts  relating  to  population  and  agriculture. 

POPULATION 

The  population  in  both  the  counties  under  consideration  has 
been  increasing  rapidly.  Already  the  1920  census  figures  are  too 
small.  At  that  time,  Stanislaus  County  with  its  43,557  persons 
had  28  per  cent  fewer  inhabitants  than  Orange  County,  the  popula- 
tion of  which  was  61,375.  As  the  area  of  Orange  County  is  little 
more  than  half  as  great  as  the  other,  the  density  of  population  is 
more  than  double,  that  of  Stanislaus  being  seventy-eight  persons  to 
the  square  mile.1 

The  varying  development  of  the  Far  West  is  well  illustrated  here. 
Orange  County  has  a  high  proportion — more  than  80  per  cent — of 
native  born  whites.  Nearly  half  of  its  foreign  born  are  of  Mexican 
origin  and  furnish  much  of  the  farm  labor,  most  of  the  remaining 
foreign  born  are  from  northern  Europe.  The  earlier  introduction 
of  irrigation  in  Orange  County,  its  settlement  before  the  newer 
immigration  had  reached  our  shores,  the  specialized  type  of  agricul- 
ture, the  climate  which  attracted  tourists  who  later  became  perma- 
nent residents, — all  these  things  have  contributed  to  the  high 
general  level  of  intelligence  of  the  people  of  Orange  County  and  to 
the  high  proportion  of  native  born.  The  only  foreign  group  which 
has  increased  in  the  last  decade  in  Orange  County  has  been  the 
Japanese. 

In  Stanislaus  County  the  situation  is  quite  different.  Thirty- 
seven  per  cent  of  the  population  were  foreign  born  at  the  time  of  the 
1920  census.  Irrigation,  developing  late  here,  has  attracted  both 
northern  and  southern  European  immigration,  especially  Scan- 
dinavians and  Portuguese.  Many  of  the  latter  came  from  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands  but  having  settled,  they  have  attracted  others  of 
their  race  from  the  old  country.  Armenians,  Germans,  Italians, 
Mexicans  and  Assyrians  are  also  present.  The  problem  of  suc- 
cessfully assimilating  these  diverse  groups  into  American  community 
life  has  been  a  real  one  for  church  and  school,  but  progress  has 
been  made. 

1  See  Appendix,  Table  I. 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

AGRICULTURE  1 

Varied  indeed  is  the  agriculture  of  these  counties.  They  boast 
of  fifty  commercial  crops  which  is  more  than  many  States.  The 
aggregate  value  of  farm  products  and  of  farm  property  runs  into 
millions.2  Roughly  speaking  Orange  County  is  devoted  to  raising 
citrus  fruits,  sugar  beets  and  walnuts,  and  Stanislaus  County  to 
dairying  and  to  the  cultivation  of  other  than  citrus  fruits,  ranging 
from  strawberries  to  watermelons.  There  is  more  pure  bred 
stock  here  than  in  any  other  county  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 


IN  THE  SUGAR  BEET  FIELDS 

Minor  crops  are  produced  with  increasing  diversity.  As  will  be 
seen,  the  type  of  agriculture  affects  the  life  and  to  some  extent  the 
population  of  the  area.  These  are  among  the  most  prosperous 
agricultural  counties  in  the  entire  nation.  Improved  land  in  irri- 
gated regions  ranges  in  price  from  $400  to  $1,500  an  acre.  Returns 
on  crops  are  large  and  the  people  are  relatively  prosperous.  Dollar 
values  bulk  high. 

1  See  Appendix,  Table  II. 

2  The  total  value  of  all  farm  property  according  to  the  1920  census  was 
$176,663,249  in  Orange  County  and  $110,595,497  in  Stanislaus  County.     The 
average  per   farm  was  $42,183  in  Orange  County   and  $24,222  in   Stanislaus 
County.     The  average  per  farm  in  New  Jersey  was  $8,428,  in  Iowa  $35,616, 
and  in  Kansas  $17,122.     Acreages  were  uniformly  larger  per  farm  in  these 
states  than  in  California.     The  gross  farm  income  in  Orange  County  was 
$6,096,  in   Stanislaus   County  $3,754. 

20 


INTRODUCING  THE  COUNTIES 

The  size  of  an  average  farm  in  the  irrigated  sections  is  about 
twenty  acres.  Five  out  of  every  six  farms  have  less  than  fifty 
acres.  Including  all  the  processes  of  cultivating,  spraying,  irrigat- 
ing, pruning  and  harvesting,  the  average  fruit  farmer  goes  over 
his  orchards  from  eighteen  to  twenty-two  times  a  year.  Such 
careful  attention  is  possible  only  on  farms  of  small  acreage  but  it 
brings  a  great  return. 

Irrigation  involves  much  labor  and  expense.  Some  of  the  irriga- 
tion projects  are  owned  by  commercial  concerns  engaged  in  the 
promotion  of  their  holdings.  Others  are  cooperative  and  for  the 
most  part  supply  water  only  to  members.  California  now  has  a 
number  of  laws  covering  irrigation.  The  law  provides  for  the  or- 
ganization of  districts  and  gives  them  the  power  to  build  dams 
and  canals  and  issue  bonds  to  finance  operations.  These  "water 
district"  bonds  are  secured  by  the  lands  within  the  districts.  The 
estimated  final  cost  per  acre  on  projects  completed  or  under  way 
in  1920  is  from  $45  to  $60  an  acre.  When  the  great  increase  in 
land  values  and  products  which  follows  irrigation  is  considered 
there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  worth  of  such  enterprises.  The 
cost  of  upkeep  is  met  by  an  acreage  tax  averaging  between  two  and 
four  dollars  a  year. 

ECONOMIC   TRENDS 

One  result  of  the  success  of  the  farming  operations  in  both 
counties  has  been  a  rapidly  diminishing  proportion  of  tenant  farm- 
ers. Almost  four-fifths  of  the  farms  are  owned,  not  rented.  Farm 
owners  are  concentrated  in  the  irrigated  sections,  as  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  in  Orange  County  the  82.5  per  cent  of  the  farms 
which  are  operated  by  owners  include  only  47  per  cent  of  the 
total  farm  acreage  of  the  county.  Tenant  farmers,  numbering  n.8 
per  cent  of  the  total,  operate  twenty-six  per  cent  of  the  land, 
while  farms  controlled  by  managers,  though  only  5.7  per  cent  of 
the  total,  contain  27  per  cent  of  the  acreage. 

Even  in  these  highly  developed  agricultural  coimtiesi  where 
community  life  is  probably  better  organized  than  in  many  rural 
areas,  the  foreign-born  seem  to  have  equal  opportunity  with  the 
natives  in  the  matter  of  land  ownership.  The  ratio  of  foreign-born 
farm  owners  to  the  total  number  of  foreign-born  farmers  is  prac- 
tically the  same  as  for  the  native  born.  A  little  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  both  groups  of  farmers  already  own  their  farms.  This 
is  a  fact  of  real  social  portent  that  needs  to  be  considered  in  rela- 

21 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

tion  to  the  changes  which  the  very  presence  of  the  foreign-born  is 
bringing  into  some  of  the  communities. 

The  subjects  of  farm  ownership  and  tenancy  cannot  be  dis- 
cussed without  a  mention  of  a  situation  existing  in  Orange  County. 
Almost  the  entire  southern  half  of  its  area  is  laid  out  in  enormous 
ranches  on  most  of  which  there  is  little  or  no  irrigation.  The  largest 
of  these  is  the  San  Joaquin  or  Irvine  ranch,  which  comprises  102,060 
acres  lying  directly  south  of  the  irrigated  portion  of  the  county  and 
extending  from  the  coast  on  the  west  to  the  county  line  on  the  east. 
This  one  ranch  with  its  more  than  150  square  miles  comprises 
one-fifth  of  the  total  area  of  the  county.  It  is  worked  by  leasing 
land  to  tenants  on  a  one-year  term.  The  lease  is  drawn  so  as  to 
safeguard  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  It  stipulates  the  number  of  inches 
for  plowing  or  sub-soiling  of  the  different  crops,  gives  exact  days  on 
which  the  harvesting  and  sacking  of  such  crops  must  be  finished, 
states  the  size  of  boxes  that  are  to  be  used  for  beans  and  grain 
and  the  delivery  points  to  which  produce  must  be  taken  by  the 
tenant,  prohibits  the  tenant  not  only  from  using  stubble  or  crop 
remnants  remaining  on  his  fields  but  also  from  pasturing  any  of 
his  stock  upon  the  land  he  rents,  fixes  the  number  of  acres  to  be 
seeded  for  each  crop,  describes  and  provides  for  an  even  division 
of  the  produce  between  owner  and  tenant  and  a  cash  rental  for  the 
buildings  on  the  land  leased,  and  reserves  among  other  rights  for 
the  owner  the  privilege  of  turning  his  cattle  and  horses  on  the 
tenant's  land  after  a  certain  day  without  any  responsibility  for 
damage  done  after  that  date.  The  Irvine  Company,  which  controls 
this  vast  acreage,  does  not  sell  land  save  under  exceptional  circum- 
stances and  almost  impossible  conditions.  Lying  as  it  does,  directly 
across  the  width  of  the  county,  this  ranch  is  the  greatest  obstacle 
t;>  further  expansion  and  development  in  Orange  County.  Ap- 
proximately two-thirds  of  this  immense  holding  could  be  brought 
under  irrigation.  This  would  mean  a  great  intensive  development 
and  a  rapid  increase  in  population  and  of  the  institutions  of  com- 
munal life  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  irrigated  section  of  the 
county  to  the  north.  The  policy  of  the  company  can  hardly  be 
characterized  as  socially  enlightened,  except  for  the  care  it  takes 
of  soil  fertility. 

What  is  said  of  this  company  is  largely  true  of  the  other  ranches. 
There  is  little  opportunity  for  social  life  for  the  tenants.  The  towns 
of  El  Toro  and  even  smaller  centers  are  devoid  of  most  of  the 
societies  that  enter  into  the  making  of  a  satisfying  community  life. 
Any  movement  on  the  part  of  the  tenants  to  better  their  conditions 

22 


INTRODUCING  THE  COUNTIES 

would  receive  small  sympathy  from  the  company  unless  it  were  to 
its  economic  advantage.  The  progress  of  Orange  County  will  be 
permanently  blocked  until  these  half  dozen  holdings,  comprising 
in  all  more  than  half  of  the  area  of  the  county,  are  broken  up. 

The  farmers  of  these  counties  are  not  overburdened  with  debt. 
Approximately  half  the  farms  are  mortgaged  to  about  30  per  cent 
of  their  value  whereas  in  general  farming  counties  in  the  Middle 
West  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  one-half  to  four-fifths  of  the  farms 
mortgaged  to  more  than  50  per  cent  of  their  value.  This  compara- 
tive freedom  from  debt  is  one  of  the  advantages  enjoyed  by  these 
California  counties  and  means  that  they  can  afford  to  contribute 
liberally  to  social  and  religious  progress. 

Irrigation  alone  cannot  account  for  the  agricultural  situation 
which  has  been  described.  Three  other  factors  have  contributed 
to  it,  only  one  of  which,  the  farm  bureau,  is  shared  equally 
by  other  regions.  The  two  factors  more  or  less  peculiar  to  this 
region  are  the  climate  and  to  a  lesser  degree  agricultural  coopera- 
tion. Any  Californian  will  admit  that  the  climate  is  "unusual." 
The  surveyor  working  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  at  no  degrees 
in  the  shade  is  quite  willing  to  believe  it.  In  Stanislaus  County 
there  is  a  short,  mild  winter,  with  plenty  of  rain,  and  a  long,  dry 
summer  described  as  "warm"  or  "hot,"  depending  upon  whether 
the  question  is  discussed  with  a  native  or  with  an  impartial  outsider. 
Orange  County  boasts  that  it  has  never  known  frost.  The  growing 
season  is  practically  twelve  months  a  year.  The  breeze  from  the 
Pacific  prevents  the  temperature  from  rising  to  quite  the  dizzy 
heights  attained  inland  farther  north. 

The  farm  bureau  has  also  helped.  It  is  organized  in  both 
counties  and  in  each  the  staff  consists  of  a  farm  agent  and  a  man- 
ager. Neither  county  has  a  home  demonstration  agent.  Both 
bureaus  have  local  centers  organized  throughout  their  counties  as 
well  as  such  specialized  enterprises  as  cow-testing  associations. 
Apart  from  a  large  number  of  technical  agricultural  projects  car- 
ried on  under  the  advice  and  supervision  of  the  agents,  the  bureaus 
have  performed  services  of  social  value.  One  has  organized  effi- 
ciently for  rural  fire  protection.  In  the  other  a  law  has  been  se- 
cured limiting  the  weight  of  loads  that  can  be  hauled  over  the 
highways.  Constant  educational  work  is  done  and  some  junior 
clubs  have  been  organized. 

California  farmers  have  shown  the  way  in  the  matter  of  co- 
operative marketing.  The  movement  is  not  as  strong  in  Stanislaus 
County  as  it  might  be,  but  Orange  County  is  the  banner  county  of 

23 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

the  Coast,  if  not  of  the  country.  More  than  a  score  of  cooperative 
exchanges  handle  practically  all  the  commercial  crops  of  the  county. 
In  the  case  of  citrus  exchanges  there  is  a  little  competition  among 
them  to  secure  members,  but  all  of  them  clear  through  the  central 
exchange  in  Los  Angeles  and  the  principle  of  cooperation  is  strong. 
The  orange  growers  were  the  first  to  organize  and  their  coopera- 
tives have  been  in  existence  since  1895.  Their  organizations  cover 
between  80  and  85  per  cent  of  the  citrus  acreage.  There  are  nine 
local  associations  for  walnut  growers,  who  also  have  their  over- 
head marketing  agency.  Bean  growers  have  organized  and  even 
the  producers  of  beets  despite  strong  opposition  from  sugar  manu- 
facturers have  now  effected  a  beet  growers'  association  with  several 
local  branches.  Farmers  raising  prunes  and  apricots  are  marketing 
through  a  state-wide  organization.  Grain  growers  are  discussing 
the  erection  of  a  cooperative  grain  elevator.  Many  poultry  men 
are  associated  with  the  State  Poultry  Association. 

The  smoothness  and  efficiency  of  the  operations  of  the  California 
fruit  and  nut  exchanges  have  caused  them  to  be  held  up  as  models 
for  similar  undertakings  elsewhere.  The  plan  followed  is  roughly 
as  follows : 

The  local  association  packs  and  crates  the  fruit  and  loads  it 
on  cars.  The  district  exchange  is  responsible  for  selling  fruit,  with 
the  aid  of  the  central  exchange.  The  fruit  remains,  however,  the 
property  of  the  district.  The  agent  of  the  central  office  notifies 
the  district  manager  of  the  best  price  obtainable,  and  the  district 
exchange  rejects  or  accepts  the  offer.  The  central  organization 
exists  merely  to  sell.  It  does  not  charge  a  fixed  commission.  It  is 
the  servant  of  the  growers  and  all  money  is  returned  to  them  after 
selling  cost  is  deducted.  The  central  exchange  has  a  contract  with 
nearly  11,000  producers  binding  them  to  deliver  all  their  products 
for  a  twenty-year  period.  The  total  cost  of  the  selling  and  adver- 
tising done  by  the  central  exchange  is  equal  to  only  i.i  per  cent 
out  of  every  dollar  received.  The  proportion  of  cost,  as  is  nearly 
always  the  case  with  cooperatives,  decreases  as  the  value  and  volume 
of  business  increases.  In  five  years  out  of  every  six  the  fruit 
growers  have  realized  a  price  in  excess  of  production  costs. 

Most  of  the  local  exchanges  are  conducted  on  the  one-man,  one- 
vote  plan,  regardless  of  the  amount  that  each  grower  may  have  in- 
vested. These  local  exchanges  own  large  plants  and  equipment  for 
crating  and  packing  the  fruit.  Many  of  the  buildings  are  most 
attractive  and  the  working  conditions  are  good.  The  efficiency  and 
stability  of  these  local  cooperatives  and  the  overhead  machinery 

24 


INTRODUCING  THE  COUNTIES 

which  they  have  built  are  largely  responsible  for  the  prosperity  of 
the  farmers  in  this  area.  In  this  respect  the  cooperative  pioneers 
of  Orange  County  have  much  to  teach  the  American  farmer  of 
today.  Some  growers  of  certain  crops,  embarrassed  because  not  yet 
paid  for  their  last  year's  products,  may  feel  that  the  cooperative 
movement  has  not  saved  them  from  the  depression  through  which 
the  country  is  passing.  While  the  farmers  of  the  San  Joaquin 
Valley  and  of  southern  California  have  not  found  the  last  year  as 
successful  as  its  predecessors,  they  are  relatively  prosperous  and  far 
better  situated  than  the  farmers  of  the  wheat,  corn  or  cotton  belts. 


READY    FOR   THE   EASTERN    MARKET 
One   of   the   packing   houses   of  the   Fruit   Growers'    Exchange,    Orange    County 

For  this  they  can  thank  cooperation.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  also 
that  the  habit  of  cooperation  and.  the  happy  economic  results  that 
have  been  obtained  have  had  an  important  bearing  on  the  social 
well-being  of  the  people.1 

In  these  counties,  then,  we  have  agriculture  at  high  tide.  Nature 
.has  given  them  many  gifts  and  the  water  which  she  withheld,  man's 
ingenuity  and  toil  have  supplied.  Irrigation  has  made  possible  a 
richer  community  life.  Cooperation  has  brought  economic  sta- 
bility. The  country  is  young.  These  are  rich  assets. 

1  In  an  account  of  this  compass  many  facts  relative  to  the  economic 
life  of  these  counties  must  be  omitted.  For  these  see  the  manuscript  copies 
on  file  at  the  office  of  the  California  State  Federation  of  Churches,  or 
books  and  pamphlets  referred  to  in  the  bibliography. 

25 


CHAPTER  II 
SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

THE  last  chapter  indicated  some  of  the  influences  that  have 
played  upon  the  changing  social  life  of  the  two  counties  under 
consideration.  In  a  word,  irrigation  is  the  explanation  not 
only  of  agricultural  prosperity  but  of  many  social  characteristics  as 
well.  Irrigation  has  accomplished  the  breaking  up  of  the  large 
holdings  into  small  tracts.  The  possibilities  of  intensive  farming 
made  any  other  type  of  agriculture  unprofitable  and  unattractive. 
Neighbors  no  longer  measure  the  distances  between  farms  by  miles 
but  can  almost  talk  over  the  back  fence.  The  number  of  persons 
per  square  mile  has  risen  rapidly  and  behind  that  census  statement 
is  the  story  of  better  schools,  stores  and  churches  made  possible  by 
a  more  closely  knit  community  life. 

As  communities  have  grown  they  have  come  nearer  together. 
Their  interests  and  their  boundaries  increasingly  overlap.  In  the 
irrigated  sections  it  is  very  difficult  to  tell  where  one  community 
ends  and  the  next  one  begins.  The  larger  economic  interests  center 
upon  the  largest  towns  or  cities.  Within  the  trade  areas  of  these 
towns  are  other  centers  each  of  which  has  all  the  machinery  of  com- 
munity life,  but  not  as  highly  organized.  There  are  also  more  satel- 
lite communities  here  than  there  are  in  an  average  rural  county,  that 
is,  centers  which  have  schools,  churches,  stores  and  other  institu- 
tions but  whose  life  is  dominated  by  that  of  a  nearby  city.  Com- 
munities are  so  close  together  and  roads  are  so  good  that  such 
overlapping  is  inevitable.  Two  instances  may  be  given  as  typical. 
A  fruit  and  walnut  grower  living  midway  between  two  of  the  cities 
in  Orange  County  is  an  officer  and  member  of  the  Walnut  Exchange 
in  one  of  these  cities  and  of  the  Citrus  Exchange  in  the  other.  In 
one  village,  located  about  twelve  miles  from  Modesto,  there  is 
quite  a  group  of  people  who  regularly  attend  the  church  of  their 
choice  in  that  city.  Just  about  as  many  leave  Modesto  to  go  to  one 
of  the  churches  within  this  same  small  village.  Personal  preference 
enters  into  the  selection  of  shipping  point,  church  and  recreation 
center.  Only  the  school  boundaries  are  hard  and  fast 

This  situation  is  paralleled  by  another,  at  least  within  the  irri- 

26 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

gated  areas.  Small  groups  of  people,  usually  a  part  of  the  same 
development  or  colony  and  so  having  common  ties  of  ownership, 
have  formed  little  neighborhood  groups  to  care  for  one  interest  or 
another.  Thus  we  find,  for  instance,  the  Prescott  school  district 
using  its  own  little  community  hall  for  a  Union  Sunday  School  and 
the  Wood  colony  owning  its  club  house.  In  almost  every  such 
instance  of  this  kind  there  is  only  one  interest  binding  the  people 
together,  while  the  balance  of  their  community  life  is  so  large, 
and  their  community  center  is  relatively  so  near,  that  these  groupings 
can  hardly  be  called  neighborhoods  in  the  usual  sense  of  that  term. 


BUILT  WITH   WATER 
Patterson,    Stanislaus    County,    is   a   typical    community    in    the    irrigated    regions 

The  community  maps  of  these  counties  have,  therefore,  been 
drawn  strictly  according  to  the  definition  that  a  community  is  "That 
aggregation  of  people,  the  majority  of  whose  local  interests  have 
a  common  center."  So  far  as  possible  the  surveyors  have  attempted 
to  strike  an  average  between  communities  in  determining  boundary 
lines.  This  means  that  the  larger  economic  boundaries  have  been 
disregarded  and  that  along  with  the  social,  educational  and  religious 
influences  which  entered  into  the  fixing  of  the  community  boun- 
daries, the  economic  factor  has  been  considered  only  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  local  interests  of  the  majority.  The  same 
standard  has  also  been  applied  to  other  features  of  communal  life 
wherever  it  was  found  that  any  considerable  group  of  people  tended 

27 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

to  go  away  from  the  nearest  center  for  the  satisfaction  of  some  need 
or  desire. 

So  defined  there  are  forty-seven  town  or  country  and  four  city 
communities  in  these  counties.  Their  population  varies  from  121  to 
over  10,000,  including  in  each  case  the  population  of  the  entire 
community,  and  not  merely  of  the  political  unit  which  lends  its  name 
to  the  area.  Roughly  speaking,  these  communities  are  of  four  kinds, 
the  irrigated,  the  non-irrigated,  the  oil  or  mining  communities  and 
the  resorts.  The  last  mentioned  are  exclusively  in  Orange  County. 

One  of  the  most  thickly  populated  farming  sections  in  either  of 
these  counties  surrounds  Modesto  city  limits.  It  is  all  irrigated 
land.  A  house  to  house  canvass  of  this  territory  was  impossible, 
but  a  study  of  the  population  figures  of  Modesto  city  and  township, 
in  the  light  of  the  total  figures  of  the  county  and  the  other  com- 
munities within  it,  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are  at  least 
7,000  people  in  the  Modesto  rural  community.  In  it  there  are,  of 
course,  a  number  of  neighborhoods,  such  as  Prescott  and  Wood 
Colony.  There  are  no  churches  although  there  are  two  Union  Sun- 
day Schools. 

One  characteristic  of  the  adolescent  stage  in  which  most  of  these 
communities  are  is  their  belief  in  themselves.  Nor  is  this  an  un- 
fortunate quality,  provided  it  does  not  result  in  a  blind  acceptance 
of  the  Tightness  of  the  home  town  or  the  superiority  of  the  home 
county  over  all  other  towns  or  counties. 

It  is  locally  stated  that  of  recent  years  there  has  been  a  visibly 
growing  sense  in  the»  citizenship  at  large,  and  in  the  several  munici- 
palities, of  their  interdependence  and  community  of  interests.  The 
feeling  between  town  and  country  is  uniformly  good.  There  is  none 
of  the  antagonism  that  exists  in  some  places.  There  may  be  mild 
irritations  at  times,  but  as  a  whole  everything  is  harmonious.  This 
is  true  largely  because  the  towns  exist  as  service  stations  for  the 
"ranchers."  Many  of  the  industries  of  the  towns  depend  upon  the 
products  of  the  groves,  fields  or  orchards,  and  are  controlled  by  the 
farmers'  cooperatives.  Furthermore,  the  American-born  popula- 
tion is  of  high  calibre.  These  facts  coupled  with  the  general  pros- 
perity and  well  organized  educational  systems  have  brought  town 
and  country  together.  Their  interests  are  one  and  they  know  it. 
Their  cultural  ideals  are  similar.  Therefore  there  is  mutual  under- 
standing and  goodwill. 

There  were  only  four  communities  in  these  counties  at  the  time 
of  the  survey  where  community  spirit  was  not  manifest  to  some 
degree.  These  four  were  all  in  the  non-irrigated  sections.  Com- 

28 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

munity  spirit  is  fostered  by  the  chambers  of  commerce,  the  schools 
and  the  farm  bureaus.  It  has  overflowed  the  community  now 
and  to  some  extent  has  included  the  county.  This  is  partly  a 
western  characteristic  and  partly  it  is  due  to  the  large  number  of 
cooperative  enterprises,  public  and  private,  which  are  organized 
with  the  county  as  a  unit.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  individuals 
who  will  laud  "old  Stanislaus"  or  sing  the  praises  of  "fair  Orange" 
with  the  inflections  most  people  use  only  when  speaking  of  their 
Alma  Mater.  This  attitude  may  have  its  amusing  side,  but  there 
are  values  Attached  to  it  which  are  not  to  be  gainsaid. 

One  is  not  surprised  to  find,  therefore,  that  almost  without  an 
exception  the  local  people  within  the  communities  in  these  counties 
will  claim  that  there  is  a  resident  leadership  sufficient  to  spur  the 
community  toward  ever  further  progress.  Statements  of  this  char- 
acter must  be  checked  against  the  actual  results  which  are  apparent 
to  the  observer.  It  becomes  clear  immediately  that  the  interests  and 
abilities  of  these  leaders  vary.  Except  for  the  ministers  mentioned, 
few  of  them  are  recognized  as  being  markedly  interested  in  the 
church  or  in  moral  welfare.  Business  men  and  farmers  predomi- 
nate among  the  leaders.  Not  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  centers  in 
these  counties  possess  leadership  that  is  broad  in  its  scope  and  which 
sees  the  community  as  a  whole.  In  one  the  church  may  be  strong, 
in  another  the  school,  in  a  third  the  farm  bureau.  Far  rarer  are  the 
cases  where  all  these  agencies  are  included  by  a  group  of  leaders 
in  their  vision  of  the  total  social  output  of  the  community. 

In  the  second  place  it  is  evident  that  some  of  the  welfare  agencies 
at  work  in  these  counties  have  had  difficulty  in  finding  or  developing 
the  leadership  adequate  to  their  programs,  for  in  most  of  these 
communities  such  agencies  do  not  operate,  especially  in  those  which 
are  less  favored  from  an  agricultural  point  of  view.  The  contri- 
bution of  these  agencies  and  the  place  which  they  have  in  the  social 
fabric  is  discussed  in  the  following  chapter. 

Even  with  all  the  agencies  at  work  the  social  life  is  disappoint- 
ingly meagre.  Pool  rooms  are  present  in  every  community.  Moving- 
picture  theatres  are  found  in  a  dozen  but  of  bands  there  are  only 
five  and  of  orchestras  six.  The  schools  are  beginning  to  do  more 
and  should  greatly  expand  their  recreational  and  social  efforts. 

Excluding  the  cities  of  over  5,000  inhabitants  there  are  found 
to  be  nearly  4,000  members  of  fraternal  orders  in  these  two  counties. 
Men  make  up  84  per  cent  of  this  total.  The  average  attendance  of 
men  at  their  lodges  is  but  one-quarter  of  the  total  membership, 
whereas  the  women's  organizations  report  two-fifths  of  the  member- 

29 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

ship  present  at  any  average  meeting.  Women  apparently,  when 
interested,  take  lodge  work  more  seriously  than  men.  It  is  also 
evident  that  lodges  are  valued  more  for  their  insurance  features 
than  for  the  program  of  activities  they  furnish.  They  reach  a 
smaller  proportion  of  their  membership  at  any  stated  meeting  than 
the  churches.  The  city  lodges  draw  largely  in  both  counties  from 
the  rural  regions  but  their  attendance  records,  so  far  as  ascertain- 
able,  would  indicate  only  a  slightly  larger  proportionate  response 
on  the  part  of  the  membership  than  for  the  town  and  village  lodge 
organizations. 

Both  counties  are  well  supplied  with  newspapers  which  reflect, 
as  might  be  imagined,  the  life  and  interests  of  the  people.  In  some, 
oil  is  the  main  topic.  The  importance  of  every  news  item  is  meas- 
ured by  its  relation  to  wells  that  are  being  dug,  that  have  begun  to 
flow  or  that  have  failed.  Other  papers  reflect  the  citrus  influence. 
Most  of  the  papers  are  small  four  to  eight-page  sheets,  especially 
those  in  the  village  and  towns.  The  Santa  Ana  Register  is  an 
exception,  as  is  the  Turlock  Farmers'  Journal.  This  latter  is 
the  only  daily  in  the  State  of  California  owned  and  operated  by 
farmers.  It  is  a  progressive  organ,  with  a  trained  newspaper  man 
as  editor,  and  has  an  enlarging  influence  and  a  growing  circulation. 
It  is  a  splendid  example  of  what  a  paper  can  become  in  a  small 
community.  The  newspapers,  as  a  whole,  are  alert  to  the  best 
interests  of  their  communities.  They  are  capable  of  even  greater 
use  than  the  social  agencies  and  churches  make  of  them.  They 
would  welcome  a  well-defined  policy  of  cooperation  on  the  part  of 
such  institutions. 

The  goal  of  social  life  is  that  measure  of  liberty  and  equality 
for  satisfying  the  legitimate  desires  of  life  which  will  prevent  the 
rise  of  unsocial  or  anti-social  tendencies  either  in  individuals  or 
communities.  The  test  of  the  adequacy  of  any  social  life  lies 
largely  therefore  in  the  moral  atmosphere  which  it  creates.  Admit- 
tedly the  moral  situation  of  any  community  is  more  difficult  to 
analyze  than  almost  any  other  factor  of  its  life.  Moral  codes 
develop  with  different  types  of  people,  and  the  average  citizen,  if 
he  knows  the  situation  outside  his  own  circle,  probably  knows  it 
only  in  a  superficial  way.  On  the  other  hand,  professional  workers, 
special  legal  officers  and  physicians  are  under  the  temptation  to  look 
upon  the  darker  side  of  the  picture  because  their  daily  work  throws 
them  more  into  contact  with  those  whose  moral  life  is  anti-social. 
Of  the  fifty-one  communities  x  in  these  counties,  the  general  testi- 

*This  figure  includes  the  cities. 

30 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

mony  of  those  interviewed  seemed  to  indicate  that  the  moral  tone 
is  improving  in  thirty-six,  while  it  is  either  stable  or  declining  in 
fifteen  others.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  of  these  fifteen,  eleven 
are  in  the  less  favored  agricultural  sections  where  the  churches  are 
weak  or  non-existent  and  where  social  agencies  have  not  yet  come 
to  offer  their  programs.  The  people  who  testified  to  the  improve- 
ment in  moral  conditions  assigned  various  causes  for  this  improve- 
ment. In  a  majority  of  cases  they  felt  that  the  coming  of  prohi- 
bition and  the  more  stringent  enforcement  of  prohibition  laws  were 
responsible  for  the  moral  progress.  Closely  following  the  school,  the 
church  is  given  second  place  among  those  institutions  or  factors 
which  are  influencing  the  situation,  and  it  is  true  that  in  all  the 
communities  in  which  the  church  is  mentioned  there  has  been  a 
growth  in  membership  and  in  the  investment  in  religion.  Others 
attribute  the  improvement  to  new  residents  who  are  moving  in, 
whose  standards  are  higher  and  who  are  displacing  the  people  whose 
lower  standards  once  dominated  the  community.  It  is  quite  likely 
that  all  these  factors  and  others  enter  into  whatever  improvement 
there  has  been. 

The  testimony  of  the  professional  workers,  however,  tells  a 
somewhat  different  story.  The  prosperity  of  the  people,  which 
gives  them  comparative  freedom,  and  the  climate,  which  makes 
possible  outdoor  recreation  at  almost  any  time  of  the  year,  espe- 
cially in  Orange  County,  have  combined  to  create  a  love  of  pleasure 
among  the  people  so  extravagant  as  to  be  unhealthy.  It  is  un- 
healthy not  so  much  because  of  its  effect  on  adults  as  because  of  its 
effect  upon  the  supervision  which  they  would  otherwise  give  to 
their  children.  The  moving  picture  theatre  has  become  a  day 
nursery  for  adolescents.  And  in  the  pictures  shown,  the  belittling 
of  the  officers  of  the  law,  the  glorifying  of  the  offender  and  the 
contempt  shown  for  the  school  teacher  and  minister,  all  have  a 
bad  effect  upon  the  children.  In  addition,  as  is  well  known,  many 
of  the  plays  are  based  on  a  sex  motif,  and  the  natural  and  legitimate 
desire  of  the  adolescent  for  knowledge  of  life  has  been  so  over- 
stimulated  that  there  is  far  more  than  the  average  old-time  danger 
of  such  knowledge  coming  in  an  unhealthy  way.  A  condition  has 
been  created  among  the  young  people  which  perhaps  only  school 
teachers,  physicians  and  county  officials  really  understand.  It  is  not 
a  situation  which  exists  in  these  counties  alone.  Localized,  how- 
ever, it  is  a  state  of  affairs  which  demands  attention  from  the 
parents,  from  the  schools  and  from  the  churches.  A  consistent  and 
fundamental  improvement  of  the  moral  situation  cannot  be  brought 

31 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

about  until  the  home,  the  school  and  the  church  face  the  situation  co- 
operatively, assume  their  respective  tasks  in  meeting  the  problem, 
and,  specifically,  in  combating  ignorance  which  is  the  twin  sister  of 
vice  itself. 

Modesto,  the  county  seat  of  Stanislaus  County,  has  a  particular 
problem  with  rural  young  people  worth  mentioning  because  it  is 
typical  of  similar  situations  elsewhere.  Its  high  school  draws  an 
increasing  number  of  students  from  the  surrounding  countryside, 
many  of  whom  spend  the  entire  week  in  the  city,  returning  to  their 
homes  only  for  the  usual  week-end  holidays.  While  many  of  them 
stay  at  the  homes  of  relatives,  there  are  several  hundred  who  must 
board  and  room  in  Modesto.  Thus  there  is  an  appreciable  number 
of  young  people  in  their  middle  teens,  who  are  practically  without 
home  discipline  or  any  chaperonage  at  all  during  the  school  year. 
Neither  socially  nor  morally  is  this  a  desirable  situation.  Moreover, 
with  the  growth  of  the  county  and  the  corresponding  growth  of 
Modesto,  this  situation  is  quite  likely  to  become  more  acute. 


32 


CHAPTER  III 
COUNTY- WIDE  AGENCIES 

AS  the  collective  life  of  people  becomes  stabilized,  institutions 
and  agencies  arise  to  meet  social  needs.  Some  of  these 
agencies  are  of  the  kind  that  command  public  recognition  and 
the  support  of  all,  such  as  those  relating  to  government  and  educa- 
tion. Others  are  volunteer  agencies  depending,  as  do  churches, 
upon  the  free-will  gifts  of  those  interested. 

The  number  of  service  agencies  and  the  appropriations  made  to 
social  welfare  by  the  people  themselves  in  any  county  are  an  index 
to  its  prosperity  and  to  the  level  of  its  social  thinking.  There  are 
counties  content  with  the  bare  essentials  necessary  to  a  semblance 
of  government.  However,  in  the  two  counties  under  consideration 
there  are  an  unusual  number  of  agencies,  public  and  private. 

Each  county  is  governed  by  a  Board  of  Supervisors,  elected  by 
the  people,  one  from  each  of  the  five  districts.  Their  term  of  office 
is  four  years.  Each  member  is  responsible  for  the  affairs  of  his 
own  district,  and  jointly  with  the  others  for  those  of  the  county. 
Besides  the  other  usual  elective  officers,  as  judges,  treasurer  and  so 
forth,  there  are  a  score  or  more  appointed  officers  including  a  board 
of  education,  a  forestry  board,  a  county  physician,  engineer  and 
farm  adviser. 

The  extent  and  importance  of  the  county  government's  work 
and  influence  are  indicated  by  the  amount  of  money  disbursed.  For 
example,  the  total  income  of  Orange  County  during  the  fiscal  year 
preceding  the  survey  amounted  to  $3,810,136.57.  Of  this  sum  two- 
thirds  was  raised  by  taxation,  most  of  the  balance  by  the  sale  of 
bonds  and  the  rest  from  miscellaneous  sources. 

Of  the  various  public  institutions  the  schools  are  of  first  impor- 
tance.1 It  happens  that  the  school  system  in  Orange  County  is 
slightly  better  organized  than  in  Stanislaus.  Education  in  Orange 
County  will  therefore  be  described  in  detail  as  furnishing  an  ade- 
quate picture  of  what  is  possible  under  favorable  economic  con- 

1  The  facts  given  in  the  description  of  Orange  County  schools  have  been 
taken  by  permission  from  "A  School  Survey  of  Orange  County,  California," 
by  Frances  Smiley. 

33 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

ditions  and  as  fairly  representative  of  these  counties  and  others  like 
them. 

The  county  has  fifty-three  school  districts.  Only  eight  of  these 
are  one-teacher  districts.  Thirteen  have  two  teachers  each,  nine 
have  three,  five  have  four  and  the  remaining  eighteen  have  five  or 
more.  In  all  the  elementary  schools  have  375  teachers.  Out  of 
every  hundred  of  these  teachers  sixty-eight  are  normal  school 
graduates,  eighteen  are  university  or  college  and  normal  school 
graduates.  Only  two  out  of  the  375  have  no  professional  training. 

The  average  salary  in  one-teacher  schools  is  $1,222.10  per  year, 
while  in  rural  schools  with  more  than  one  teacher  it  is  $1,352.61,  and 


THE   TEACHERAGE   AT   TUSTIN,   ORANGE   COUNTY 

in  the  city  schools  it  is  $1,501.03.  Thirty-two  teachers  have  inde- 
pendent incomes  from  some  source,  mostly  from  ranches.  Seventy- 
four  are  married  and  are  teaching  to  eke  out  the  family  income,  for 
love  of  the  work,  or  to  fill  in  some  vacancy.  It  will  be  seen  there- 
fore that  practically  one-quarter  of  the  teachers  of  the  county  have, 
if  not  some  other  occupation,  at  least  some  important  outside  inter- 
est which  makes  demands  upon  their  time.  In  this  respect  the 
ministers  make  a  better  record.  The  teachers  in  the  county  find  it 
unusually  difficult  to  obtain  adequate  living  quarters  and  this  has 
resulted  in  a  marked  migratory  tendency  among  them,  as  well  as 
some  non-residence.  In  the  rural  school  districts  thirty-six  of  the 
eighty-seven  teachers  or  41  per  cent  reside  outside  of  the  district 
in  which  they  teach.  Several  of  the  communities  have  houses  for 
their  teachers  which  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction. 

34 


COUNTY-WIDE  AGENCIES 

Enrollment  in  the  elementary  schools  is  9,118  while  average  daily 
attendance  is  8,194  or  89  per  cent  of  the  total  number.  The  three 
cities  and  six  of  the  towns  or  villages  have  kindergartens  which 
all  together  enroll  a  total  of  746  children  and  have  an  average  at- 
tendance of  375.  One-half  of  the  students  entering  the  first  grade 
finish  grammar  school  but  less  than  one-sixth  finish  High  School. 
Seven  schools  have  equipment  for  teaching  agriculture  and  twice 
as  many  have  domestic  science  equipment.  There  are  forty-two 
pianos  or  organs  and  fifteen  phonographs  in  the  elementary  schools 
of  the  county. 

Most  of  the  school  buildings  are  very  fine.  Only  two  of  the 
districts  in  the  mountains  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  county 


THE  PRIZE  SCHOOL  OF  ORANGE  COUNTY 
Part  of   the  group   of   sixteen  buildings  which   comprise   Fullerton    High    School 

have  the  antiquated  cross-lighted,  one-room  type  of  building.  There 
are  a  few  other  one-room  schools,  but  for  the  most  part  they  are 
near  cities  or  near  union  or  consolidated  district  buildings. 

The  school  administration  is  sympathetic  to  a  broad  school 
program.  Organized  recreational  activities  are  encouraged.  The 
county  association  of  grammar  school  principals  meets  twice  a  year, 
its  chief  interest  lying  in  the  direction  of  school  athletics.  The 
schools  are  divided  into  two  athletic  leagues — north  and  south. 
Local  contests  and  competitions  are  held  and  the  winners  of  each 
league  play  each  other  for  the  county  championship.  All  compe- 
tition except  for  such  games  as  baseball  is  on  grade  basis  so  that 
every  pupil  adds  his  bit  to  the  total  school  score,  and  the  little  first 
grade  boy  or  girl  who  makes  a  good  record  may  prove  more  valu- 
able in  the  competition  than  the  grammar  school  lad  who,  while 

35 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

naturally  excelling  the  records  of  the  little  children,  makes  a  rela- 
tively poorer  showing.  The  high  school  athletic  equipment  is  elabo- 
rate. Anaheim,  for  instance,  has  a  gymnasium,  nine  outdoor  tennis 
courts  and  six  basketball  courts,  baseball  and  football  fields,  a  track 
and  in  prospect  an  open  air  swimming  pool. 

Fullerton's  exceptionally  fine  schools  may  be  taken  as  typical 
of  the  progress  that  has  been  made  in  the  larger  centers.  This  small 
town  even  supports  a  Junior  College.  On  the  High  School  campus 
of  fifteen  acres  are  sixteen  school  buildings,  including  a  gymnasium 
and  a  special  building  for  the  Junior  College.  There  is  an  open 
air  theatre  and  the  auditorium  is  equipped  with  a  stage.  There  are 


OFF  TO  SCHOOL 

Fullerton  High   School  is  determined  that  its  splendid  buildings  shall  not  be  unoccupied. 
Eight  buses  collect   the  pupils  and  take   them  to  and   from   school 

also  three  residences  for  teachers,  a  Botanical  Garden  and  a  large 
athletic  field.  The  social  attractions  of  the  school  include  an  annual 
musical  festival,  in  which  two  girls'  and  two  boys'  glee  clubs  co- 
operate with  the  twenty- four  piece  orchestra.  A  number  of  plays 
are  also  given  during  the  school  year.  The  school  transports  rural 
pupils  in  eight  automobile  buses. 

The  smaller  schools  share  proportionately  in  this  attention  to 
athletics.  They  also  have  athletic  teams  for  both  sexes  in  various 
sports  such  as  volley  ball  and  tennis.  Considerable  attention  is  also 
given  to  music,  and  there  are  boys'  and  girls'  glee  clubs  in  a  number 
of  schools,  and  orchestras  in  ten.  Practically  every  school  has  play- 
ground apparatus.  In  a  number  of  the  schools  there  are  stereopti- 
cons  or  moving-picture  machines. 

36 


COUNTY-WIDE  AGENCIES 


CROW  S   LANDING   GRADE   SCHOOL 

The    splendid    buildings    of    this    school    in    Stanislaus    County    are    the    more    remarkable 
because  the  community  they  serve  numbers  not  more  than  five  or  six  hundred  people 


STANISLAUS   COUNTY  S    PREMIER   SCHOOL 
Patterson  Union  High  School 


37 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

Special  days  are  observed  throughout  the  schools  of  the  county. 
At  Christmas,  Thanksgiving,  commencement,  Halloween  and  on 
Valentine's  Day,  there  are  elaborate  programs  and  special  exercises 
and  decorations  by  the  art,  music  and  reading  classes.  Beautifying 
the  school  grounds  is  customary  on  Arbor  Day.  National  holidays 
furnish  the  motif  for  patriotic  study  in  various  classes.  There  is 
an  annual  exhibit  of  school  work. 

The  children  of  the  schools  are  organized  in  the  Junior  Red 
Cross  and  the  activities  include  the  sending  of  jellies  to  the  naval 
hospitals,  clothing  to  needy  children  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  the 
county,  the  installing  of  improvements  of  hygienic  nature  in  the 
school,  health  education  and  the  use  of  motion  pictures  where  the 
school  has  a  machine.  The  interest  in  health  has  extended  in  cer- 
tain communities  beyond  what  little  the  Red  Cross  can  do.  The 
government  peace  program  of  the  Children's  Bureau  is  followed  in 
a  few  districts.  It  includes  both  health  games  and  instruction. 
Others  employ  nurses  on  full  or  part  time. 

It  is  in  the  broader  social  program  that  the  schools  of  Stanislaus 
County  have  a  larger  contribution  to  make  in  the  future.  As  in  the 
southern  county  practically  all  of  the  421  elementary  and  high  school 
teachers  are  college  or  normal  school  graduates.  This  fact  places 
in  every  community  men  and  women  who  have  the  training  and, 
presumably,  the  ability  to  become  community  leaders.  This  asset 
has  been  too  little  used,  possibly  because  the  administration  authori- 
ties have  held  very  closely  to  strictly  educational  work  and  have  not 
encouraged  other  activities.  On  the  other  hand,  these  activities  have 
not  been  discouraged,  and  there  has  been  cordial  cooperation  with 
social  work  begun  under  local  initiative  such  as  the  Americaniza- 
tion program  at  Hughson. 

The  state  appropriates  approximately  $323,000  a  year  to  the 
schools  of  Orange  County,  about  four-fifths  of  which  goes  to  the 
elementary  schools.  This  amount  is  duplicated  by  the  county.  All 
of  the  school  districts  raise  money  for  the  schools  by  special  taxa- 
tion and  twenty-four  districts  have  used  school  bonds  at  least  once, 
to  a  total  of  more  than  $2,000,000.  The  appropriations  for  schools 
increased  450  per  cent  in  the  decade  between  1910  and  1920.  The 
county  spends  about  one-third  of  its  income  on  education.  The 
average  annual  expenditure  per  pupil  in  the  kindergartens  is  $25.13, 
in  the  grades,  $37.70,  and  in  the  high  schools,  $98.29. 

The  Americans  and  Japanese  in  Orange  County  present  no  out- 
standing problems  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  schools.  They 
attend  well  except  for  illness.  The  Mexican  situation  is  entirely 

38 


COUNTY-WIDE  AGENCIES 

different,  but  this  will  be  discussed  in  connection  with  the  chapter 
on  Mexican  work. 

Both  the  counties  now  have  county-wide  library  systems. 
Whereas  the  system  in  Orange  County  is  in  its  first  year  that  in 
Stanislaus  County  is  ten  years  old  and  is  one  of  the  best  in  America. 
The  Stanislaus  County  Free  Library  was  established  in  1911  by  the 
Board  of  Supervisors,  with  the  idea  of  securing  for  rural  residents 
the  same  library  privileges  enjoyed  by  the  people  living  in  the  cities. 
The  nucleus  of  the  system  was  the  fine  McHenry  Library  in 
Modesto,  the  county  seat.  Including  it  and  the  five  Carnegie 
Libraries  in  other  incorporated  centers,  there  are  sixty-three  dis- 
tributing points  in  the  county.  Twenty-seven  of  these  are  com- 
munity branches  and  thirty-six  are  school  branches.  Of  the  com- 
munity branches  six  have  buildings  and  fifteen  have  reading  rooms 
while  the  remainder  use  private  residences  or  other  convenient 
centers  as  distributing  points  for  the  books.  Including  the  three  at 
headquarters,  there  are  sixty-six  workers  on  the  staff.  With  the 
exception  of  the  custodians  in  small  neighborhoods,  all  these  are 
trained  workers,  although  not  all  give  their  entire  time  to  the  work. 

The  service  thus  rendered  is  greatly  appreciated.  The  total 
circulation  of  books  during  the  last  year  was  almost  a  quarter  of 
a  million.  Registered  borrowers  number  17,808,  or  approximately 
forty  per  cent  of  the  people  in  the  county.  Considering  the  high 
proportion  of  foreign-speaking  people  and  the  number  unable 
to  read,  this  record  is  remarkably  good.  Any  branch  can  procure 
any  book  desired  by  the  borrower,  either  through  the  Library  at 
the  county  seat  or  the  State  Library.  The  County  Library  also 
supplies  many  of  the  smaller  schools  with  maps,  charts,  pictures 
and  victrola  records. 

In  addition  to  these  there  are  other  welfare  agencies  either  con- 
trolled or  subsidized  by  the  county  such  as  anti-tuberculosis  leagues, 
destitution  homes,  hospitals,  the  juvenile  court  and  the  public  wel- 
fare department.  Both  counties  employ  probation  officers  who  work 
in  cooperation  with  the  courts  and  the  schools.  They  are  also 
charged  to  cooperate  with  the  State  in  carrying  out  legislation  in 
regard  to  orphans,  widows  and  families,  that  for  one  reason  or 
another,  need  aid.  In  Stanislaus  County  this  work  is  under  a 
county  welfare  department.  California  has  an  elaborate  code  of 
laws  dealing  with  the  care  of  the  unfortunate  and  the  State  Board 
of  Control  has  a  policy  which  is  in  line  with  present-day  standards. 
The  family  is  recognized  as  the  normal  unit  and  in  the  state  as  a 
whole,  the  number  of  children  receiving  aid  in  institutions  dropped 

39 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

almost  80  per  cent  between  1904  and  1918,  while  during  the  same 
period  the  number  aided  in  families  increased  nearly  200  per  cent. 
The  Public  Welfare  Department  is  closely  linked  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Probation  Officer,  and  it  has  power  to  call  upon  the 
services  of  all  county  agencies. 

The  welfare  budgets  of  these  two  counties  reflect  something  of 
the  social  and  economic  condition  of  the  people.  They  total 
$227,316.53.  This  represents  $2.68  per  capita  in  Stanislaus  and 
$1.45  in  Orange  County.1  There  are  some  significant  omissions 
from  the  list.  Neither  county,  for  instance,  has  a  county  public 
health  nurse.  It  is  claimed  that  much  of  the  aid  extended  goes 
either  to  the  foreign-born  or  to  those  who  have  come  from  other 
parts  of  America  in  search  of  health.  There  are  no  poor  in  these 
counties,  especially  in  the  southern  one,  in  the  sense  in  which  that 
term  is  understood  elsewhere.  Wealth  seems  to  be  comparatively 
well  distributed.  For  instance,  in  Orange  County  in  1921  one 
family  in  five  reported  taxable  personal  property.  The  standard  of 
living  is  therefore  high.  Forty-six  out  of  every  100  dwellings  have 
telephones  and  to  every  eleven  houses  there  are  ten  automobiles. 

The  activities  of  these  county  governments  indicate  that  the 
people  have  come  to  regard  the  county  as  a  larger  community.  The 
library  systems,  reaching  into  every  corner  of  the  county,  show  how 
thoroughly  society  of  itself  can  organize  to  meet  a  need.  For  some 
of  these  neighborhoods  and  hamlets  the  branch  of  the  county  library 
is  almost  the  only  agency  which  brings  the  touch  of  the  outside 
social  and  cultural  world  to  the  people.  No  other  agency,  religious 
or  social,  is  nearly  as  successful  in  covering  the  area  of  the  county. 
It  will  be  seen  from  this  review  that  in  both  social  and  economic 
affairs  the  county  has  been  accepted  as  a  working  unit. 

A  number  of  voluntary  social  and  religious  agencies  also  adopt 
this  unit.  Each  county  has  an  unusual  number  of  these,  seven 
being  common  to  both.  Of  them  all  the  Red  Cross  enlists  the 
largest  membership.  It  is  undertaking  to  serve  hot  lunches  in  the 
schools  of  several  communities.  It  supports  public  health  nurses 
in  the  two  county  seats.  Its  other  activities  center  upon  the  nor- 
mal program  of  the  organization  and  include  aid  for  ex-service  men 
and  their  families,  raising  funds  for  European  relief  and  similar 
projects. 

The  county-wide  Y.M.C.A.  organizations  employ  four  secretaries 
and  enroll  1,100  boys  in  sixty-five  groups,  sixteen  of  these  groups 
being  high  school  clubs.     The  programs  include  athletics,  socials, 
*This  figure  is  on  the  basis  of  estimated  1921  population. 

40 


COUNTY-WIDE  AGENCIES 

father  and  son  banquets,  educational  and  social  hygiene  talks,  pic- 
nics, hikes,  conferences,  camping  features.  Every  group  has  a 
Bible  class.  Last  year  there  were  sixty-eight  decisions  for  the 
Christian  life  among  the  Y.M.C.A.  boys.  The  combined  budgets  in 
the  two  counties  slightly  exceed  $17,000. 

Another  organization  concerned  with  the  welfare  of  boys  which 
is  operating  in  both  counties  is  the  Boy  Scouts.  In  each  there  is 
a  full-time  scout  executive.  The  regular  scout  program  is  carried 
out  including  hikes  and  camping  trips.  Nearly  one  thousand  boys, 
divided  almost  equally  between  the  two  counties  are  enrolled.  Most 
of  the  work  is  in  the  cities. 

An  analysis  of  the  points  at  which  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  Boy  Scouts 
are  operating  shows  that  these  agencies  have  devoted  themselves 
largely  to  the  irrigated  and  more  favored  sections.  This  results  in 
their  appealing  to  the  same  constituency  in  certain  places.  There 
may  be  work  enough  for  both  organizations  in  some  of  the  larger 
centers  but  not  in  village  or  open  country  communities.  The  pres- 
ent policies  of  the  organizations  do  not  succeed  in  meeting  the  total 
need.  In  one  of  the  counties,  for  instance,  there  are  five  thousand 
boys  in  the  elementary  and  high  school  grades.  Even  assuming 
that  half  of  these  are  in  the  fifth  grade  or  lower,  and  therefore 
below  scout  age,  the  fact  that  the  combined  memberships  of  the 
Association  groups  and  the  scout  troops  is  barely  one  thousand  in 
each  county  shows  the  need  for  expansion. 

The  scout  program  is  one  which  can  be  adopted  and  used  by 
any  organization  such  as  church,  school  or  association.  It  is  a  fair 
question  as  to  whether  or  not  it  is  socially  the  best  policy  for  this 
organization  to  erect  county-wide  organizations,  at  least  where 
others  were  first  in  the  field.  Theoretically,  the  Boy  Scouts  work 
through  existing  agencies.  Its  executive  secures  a  leader  in  a 
church,  club  or  school.  Practically,  there  are  all  the  possibilities  for 
competition.  In  one  county  for  instance,  one  organization  has  a 
camp  site.  The  other  is  about  to  buy  one.  There  is  cooperation 
between  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  the  Boy  Scouts,  but  it  is  a  cooperation 
based  on  splendid  personalities  and  not  on  a  definitely  coordinated 
policy.  Both  appeal  largely  to  the  same  financial  constituency. 
In  a  time  of  depression,  therefore,  the  work  of  both  would  suffer. 
If  there  could  be  a  coordinated  policy  and  a  combined  budget  the 
boys  of  every  community  and  hamlet  in  the  county  could  be  reached 
with  a  smaller  expenditure.  As  it  is,  approximately  one-third  of 
the  communities  are  untouched  by  either  agency.  These  sugges- 
tions are  not  intended  to  be  an  exact  solution  for  the  problem. 

41 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

The  contribution  of  both  agencies  to  boy  life  is  valuable.  In  many 
ways  they  supplement  each  other  but  from  the  standpoint  of  general 
social  efficiency  it  is  proper  to  point  out  the  weaknesses  of  the 
present  situation. 

The  anti-tuberculosis  organizations  cooperate  with  the  county 
officials.  Among  a  number  of  special  achievements  one  county  has 
made  a  health  survey  and  the  other  through  the  sale  of  its  stamps 
has  secured  funds  to  employ  a  county  nurse  for  one  year  and  hopes 
to  make  the  service  permanent. 

In  Stanislaus  County,  Community  Service,  Inc.,  is  also  at  work 
and  had,  at  the  time  of  the  survey,  a  full-time  executive.  The  bulk 
of  the  work  has  thus  far  been  done  at  Modesto  along  lines  of 
dramatics,  community  sings,  recreation,  play  and  activities  for  girls. 
Some  work  has  been  accomplished  in  the  rural  districts,  especially 
those  contiguous  to  Modesto  but  also  in  Salida,  Keyes  and  Oakdale. 
These  points  have  formed  a  dramatic  league.  Community  Service 
has  also  supervised  the  playground  work  in  Modesto,  and  cooperated 
in  such  special  enterprises  as  "Girls'  Week"  and  "Music  Week." 
The  plans  now  under  way  include  county  adult  athletics  and  the 
formation  of  Mothers'  Clubs.  ** 

County  Sunday  School  Associations  exist  in  both  counties.  In 
Orange  County  there  had  been  a  salaried  secretary  giving  his  entire 
time  to  the  work  of  the  association.  He  helped  especially  the 
smaller  Sunday  Schools  and  gave  some  religious  service  to  neglected 
portions  of  the  county.  In  certain  communities  in  cooperation  with 
the  public  schools  Bible  tests  were  given  to  grade  and  high  school 
pupils.  Both  associations  held  district  and  workers'  conferences. 
In  the  northern  county  the  work  is  entirely  on  a  volunteer  basis  and 
successful  to  the  measure  of  the  loyalty  and  service  given  by  its 
officers.  In  the  south  the  total  budget  was  a  little  over  $3,000,  of 
which  a  disproportionate  share,  $1,300,  went  to  the  state  Sunday 
School  Association.  It  was  this  last  fact  which  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  difficulties  in  which  this  otherwise  successful  and 
promising  agency  found  itself  in  the  summer  of  1921. 

Another  county-wide  religious  organization  is  the  Clerical  Club 
of  Orange  County.  In  effect,  this  is  a  county  ministerial  association 
meeting  quarterly  or  oftener  if  needed.  Its  secretary  is  the  execu- 
tive secretary  of  the  County  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
It  has  stood  for  Sabbath  observance,  introduced  speakers  on  live 
topics,  brought  pressure  to  bear  on  beach  officials  to  enforce  decency 
and  investigated  the  subject  of  week-day  religious  instruction. 

42 


COUNTY-WIDE  AGENCIES 

About  80  per  cent  of  the  ministers  of  the  county  are  members  of 
the  club. 

Two  other  agencies  peculiar  to  Orange  County  remain  to  be 
described.  These  are  the  Social  Service  League  and  the  federated 
Parent  Teachers'  Association. 

Formerly  a  volunteer  agency,  the  League  was  taken  under  county 
supervision  in  the  spring  of  1921.  At  present  it  is  specializing 
on  the  employment  question,  investigating  the  family  situation  of 
possible  workers,  finding  those  who  are  fit  for  occupation  and  then 
securing  for  them  practical  work.  The  relief  as  such  is  negligible. 
The  prosperity  of  the  county  is  shared  by  the  great  majority  of 
the  people,  although  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  confidential  relief 
work  when  situations  of  sudden  stress  arise.  Non-interest  bearing 
loans  are  then  made.  Churches  and  clubs  such  as  the  Rotary,  Elk 
and  Kiwanis  are  enlisted  in  efforts  to  take  care  of  children.  The 
League  has  a  child-welfare  department  and  seeks  to  examine  chil- 
dren of  pre-school  age.  There  is  a  clinic  in  charge  of  the  county 
director  and  records  are  kept  according  to  the  standards  of  the 
Russell  Sage  Foundation.  This  department  of  the  League  is  the 
distribution  center  for  the  government  bulletins  covering  prenatal 
and  child  care. 

The  Parent-Teachers'  Associations  grew  out  of  the  County 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  and  the  thirty- four  local 
associations  within  the  county  are  now  affiliated  with  the  California 
Congress  of  Mothers'  and  Parent  Teachers'  Associations.  The 
total  membership  is  over  2,600.  There  have  been  lectures  on  child 
welfare  and  the  activities  and  educational  work  of  the  associations 
locally  and  collectively  are  responsible  for  the  employment  of  five 
community  nurses,  for  putting  the  county  free  library  system  into 
operation,  for  building  teacherages,  for  creating  sentiment  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  state  cigarette  law,  for  financing  summer  play- 
grounds, for  receptions  to  the  teachers,  for  community  Christmas 
trees  and  for  entertainment  for  both  native  and  alien  children.  In 
addition  to  all  this,  Americanization  work  has  been  done  in  several 
of  the  Mexican  schools,  school  bonds  and  other  school  legislation 
have  been  supported,  vocational  conferences  held  and  $2,000  has 
been  raised  to  purchase  playground  apparatus,  four  phonographs, 
two  moving-picture  machines  and  other  needed  equipment  for  one 
or  more  of  the  schools. 

Even  this  array  does  not  entirely  exhaust  the  list  of  organiza- 
tions operating,  if  not  on  a  county  basis,  at  least  throughout  the 
county.  Of  these  the  American  Legion  is  one.  All  the  more  im- 

43 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

portant  agencies  from  a  religious  and  social  point  of  view  have, 
however,  been  noted.  It  will  be  seen  that  vigorous  efforts  have 
been  put  forth  to  meet  social  needs.  There  is  no  lack  of  organiza- 
tions, and  while  there  is  some  overlapping  of  effort,  there  is  a  cor- 
dial spirit  of  cooperation  among  the  executives  of  most  of  these 
agencies.  At  the  same  time,  no  attempt  at  anything  more  than 
informal  conference  has  as  yet  been  made.  Each  organization  pro- 
ceeds along  its  own  line.  There  is  no  council  of  agencies.  The 
time  is  coming,  however,  when  the  growth  of  these  counties  and  the 
pressure  of  unmet  needs  will  demand  greater  coordination.  Today, 
the  foreigner,  especially  the  Mexican,  is  the  greatest  problem  the 
welfare  agencies  must  face.  The  prospects  of  a  rapid  increase  in 
the  general  population  will  lay  added  burdens  upon  all  of  the  social 
and  religious  institutions.  A  county  council  of  agencies  would 
probably  be  most  useful  in  correlating  the  work  of  the  various 
bodies,  in  crystallizing  the  social  sentiment  of  each  county  on  any 
issue  and  in  making  effective  the  joint  programs  of  certain  of  the 
agencies.  Certainly  if  there  is  not  a  council  of  agencies  there  should 
be  quarterly  conferences  including  all  interests,  both  social  and 
religious,  and  both  public  and  private.  At  the  present  time,  with 
the  situation  so  cooperative  and  friendly  as  it  is,  the  need  for  this 
may  not  be  apparent,  but  it  would  be  well  for  the  leaders  in  each 
county  to  take  advantage  of  the  present  opportunity  to  organize  so 
that  a  less  fortunate  state  of  affairs  may  not  arise. 


44 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  GENERAL 

ONE  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  people,  agricultural  in  their 
interests,  living  in  a  land  that  was  young  when  New  England 
was  aging,  prosperous  above  the  average,  and  all  believing  in 
the  future  of  their  country,  this  is  the  opportunity  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  these  two  California  counties.  Within  half  a  century, 
there  has  been  built  a  life  which  in  many  respects  represents  the 
farthest  reach  toward  a  fully  satisfying  rural  existence  that  any 
group  of  American  farmers  has  yet  attained.  The  rapidity  of  the 
development  that  has  occurred  has,  however,  thrown  upon  every 
social  institution  the  burden  of  increasing  its  equipment  and  its 
service  with  equal  celerity  in  order  to  keep  pace.  This  is  especially 
true  of  the  churches,  for  they,  together  with  the  schools,  are  the 
only  institutions  which  have  seriously  attempted  in  the  past  to  reach 
entire  population  groups. 

At  first  glance,  there  is  much  to  indicate  satisfactory  progress 
on  the  part  of  the  religious  forces.  The  1906  Federal  religious 
census  reported  a  total  of  11,646  church  members  in  these  two 
counties  and  that  of  1916  found  27,980,  an  increase  of  131  per  cent. 
Church  membership  is,  therefore,  increasing  more  rapidly  than  the 
population  which  in  the  last  census  period  gained  slightly  less  than 
90  per  cent.  The  Protestant  and  non-evangelical  groups  have  alike 
shared  in  this  gain,  though  the  Roman  Catholics  have  made  a  larger 
proportionate  advance,  due  very  largely  to  the  Portuguese  immigra- 
tion into  Stanislaus  County.  These  figures,  of  course,  include  both 
the  city  and  the  town  and  country  churches. 

In  this  survey,  as  previously  stated,  city  churches  have  been 
excluded  from  the  study.  For  purposes  of  definition,  incorporated 
places  with  five  thousand  or  more  inhabitants  have  been  classified 
as  cities.1  Those  churches  which  have  been  studied  have  been 
divided  into  three  groups,  town,  village  and  country.  Towns  have 

1  California  law  permits  the  incorporation  of  cities  of  six  classes. 
Waterford,  for  instance,  with  a  population  of  500  is  a  city  of  the  sixth  class. 
In  this  treatise,  for  the  sake  of  uniformity  and  clarity,  the  divisions  used 
in  similar  surveys  and  noted  above  have  been  retained. 

45 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

been  defined  as  incorporated  centers  with  from  2,501  to  5,000  in- 
habitants. Villages  include  all  places  with  from  251  to  2,500. 
Hamlets  of  250  or  less  and  open  country  communities  are  counted 
as  country.  The  following  chapters  discuss  the  evangelical  churches 
of  the  English-speaking  population.  Later  chapters  describe  the 
Mexican  Protestant  and  non-evangelical  work.  In  these  two  coun- 
ties there  are  fifteen  town,  forty-nine  village  and  twenty  country 
churches.  These  are  distributed  among  the  following  denomina- 
tions : 

Denomination  Churches 

Methodist    Episcopal    ......................................  19 

Presbyterian,  U.  S.  A  .......................................  1  1 

Baptist     ...................................................  7 

Church  of  the  Brethren   ...................................  5 

Seven  Day  Adventists   .....................................  5 

Congregational      ...........................................  5 

Lutheran    (various    synods)    ...............................  5 

Methodist  Episcopal  South    ................................  4 

Friends      ..................................................  4 

Disciples     ...................................................  4 

Free   Methodist    ...........................................  3 

Church  of  the  Nazarene    ..................................  3 

Church   of    Christ    .........................................  2 

Swedish    Covenant    ........................................  2 

Protestant   Episcopal    ......................................  2 

Swedish    Baptist    ..........................................  i 

Swedish    Free    Baptist    ....................................  I 

Advent    Christian    .........................................  i 


In  addition  to  these  congregations  there  are  several  branches  of 
certain  sects  which,  though  non-Catholic,  can  hardly  be  classified 
as  evangelical.  Small,  separate  groups,  without  influence,  they  live 
upon  superstition  .  and  emotionalism.  They  keep  no  records  and 
are  not  a  constructive  influence.  The  total  membership  of  the  six 
or  seven  such  organizations  does  not  exceed  two  hundred  members 
and  is  probably  considerably  less.  Though  investigated,  the  pro- 
gram and  organization  of  these  so-called  churches  is  not  compar- 
able with  that  of  the  regular  denominational  congregations  and  they 
are  therefore  excluded  from  this  discussion. 

There  are  a  number  of  abandoned  or  inactive  churches  in  both 
counties.  Most  of  these  are  in  the  dry  farming  areas  where  people 
are  few  and  leadership  scarce.  These  regions  constitute  a  real 
problem  which  will  be  discussed  later.  Two  churches  have  been 
given  up  because  of  their  failure  to  live  in  overchurched  communi- 
ties. In  four  other  cases  the  death  of  an  organization  did  not  mean 
the  ending  of  religious  work.  The  population  of  certain  communi- 

46 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  IN  GENERAL 

ties  shifted.  New  groups  moved  in  which  either  racially  or  his- 
torically were  totally  unaccustomed  to  the  church  which  had  been 
ministering  to  the  field.  In  three  instances  the  buildings  have  been 
turned  over  to  the  new  organizations  formed  either  by  or  for  the 
new  population. 


47 


CHAPTER  V 
CHURCH  EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 

CALIFORNIA  has  developed  a  distinct  type  of  dwelling — the 
bungalow.     The  influence  of  the  bungalow  and  of  the  Spanish 
mission  type  of  architecture,  while  clearly  evidenced  in  many 
of  the  schools,  has  not  extended  to  the  town  and  country  churches. 


A    DEPARTURE   FROM    THE   CONVENTIONAL 

The  First  Baptist  Church  at  Turlock,  Stanislaus  County, 
is  successful  in  getting  away  from  the  conventional  style 
of  architecture. 


For  the  most  part  they  are  the  same  sort  of  conventional  oblong 
buildings  which  may  be  seen  anywhere  in  rural  America. 

Wood  is  the  prevailing  building  material,  having  been  used  in 
seventy  of  the  eighty-two  church  buildings.1     The  buildings  are  for 

1  Two  congregations  worship  in  rented  halls,  hence  the  difference  between 
the  number  of  congregations  and  the  number  of  buildings. 

48 


CHURCH  EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 


A  CITY  CHURCH  AND  A  TOWN  CHURCH 
These  two  fine  Methodist  churches  are  situated  respectively  at  Anaheim  and  at  Oakdale 


49 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

the  most  part  of  good  size.  Only  twenty-four  of  the  entire  number 
are  the  conventional  one-room  building.  Thirty-four  have  from 
two  to  five  rooms  each,  fourteen  from  six  to  ten,  and  ten  churches 
enjoy  from  eleven  to  twenty-three  rooms  each.  The  total  seating 
capacity  of  these  churches  averages  301,  and  that  of  the  main  audi- 
toriums, 215,  an  indication  that  the  extra  rooms  are  usually  so 
arranged  that  they  can  be  thrown  into  the  main  auditorium  when 
necessary. 

A  comparison  of  church  buildings  by  town,  village  and  country 
yields  the  results  that  would  be  expected.  Town  buildings  are  the 
most  costly,  with  the  village  and  country  following  in  that  order. 
The  average  value  for  all  the  buildings  is  a  little  over  $6,000  but 
the  range  is  from  $1,000  to  $25,000.  The  average  in  the  towns 
alone  is  $16,342  as  against  $4,207  for  the  villages  and  $2,510  for  the 
country.  Two-fifths  of  the  church  buildings  are  valued  at  less 
than  $3,000.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  whereas  the  town  churches 
in  these  California  counties  are  considerably  more  valuable  than 
those  in  two  prosperous  eastern  counties  selected  for  comparison, 
Salem  County,  N.  J.,  and  Clay  County,  Iowa,  the  average  value  of 
all  church  buildings  is  one-third  lower  than  in  Salem  County  and 
only  slightly  in  excess  of  Clay  County.  The  economic  advantages 
of  the  California  counties  are  not  reflected  in  the  type  of  church 
buildings  except  in  the  towns. 

Another  comparison  can  be  made  within  the  counties  themselves 
between  the  value  of  church  buildings  located  in  irrigated  sections, 
in  the  less  favored  agricultural  areas  and  in  communities  where 
oil  is  the  predominating  economic  asset.  The  highest  values  are  to 
be  found  in  the  oil  communities.  If  their  average  valuation  is 
represented  by  ten,  the  average  valuation  of  the  church  buildings  in 
the  more  favored  agricultural  communities  would  be  represented  by 
eight  and  in  the  less  favored  by  four. 

Social  equipment  is  strangely  lacking  in  most  of  the  churches 
and  even  those  that  have  many  rooms  use  them  chiefly  for  religious 
education  rather  than  for  both  educational  and  social  purposes.  The 
kitchen,  of  course,  is  to  be  found  in  practically  all  the  buildings 
that  have  more  than  one  room.  Eleven  churches  own  stereopticons 
and  one  has  a  moving-picture  machine  which  is  used  every  Sunday 
evening.  In  other  ways  the  equipment  is  modern,  nine-tenths  of 
the  churches,  for  instance,  having  electric  lights.  The  churches, 
too,  are  usually  in  good  condition,  only  four  being  classed  as  "poor" 
condition  and  but  seventeen  as  "fair." 

Fifty-six  of  the  churches  in  the  counties  supply  parsonages  for 

50 


CHURCH  EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 

their  ministers,  a  high  proportion  including  two-thirds  of  the  village 
and  country  congregations  and  four-fifths  of  the  town  churches. 
With  but  few  exceptions  these  parsonages  are  in  good  condition. 
Their  values  range  from  $1,000  to  $7,000  but  average  just  under 
$3,000. 


HUNTINGTON    BEACH    METHODIST   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Vacationists  and  oil  are  jointly  responsible  for  making  this 
community  one  of  the  most  prosperous  in  Orange  County 


FINANCE 

The  8,000  active  members  of  the  evangelical  churches  raise  every 
year  more  than  $250,000.  This  is  the  outstanding  fact  in  the  finan- 
cial situation.  It  means  more  than  thirty-one  dollars  per  member 
and  more  than  $3,000  per  congregation.  The  prosperity  of  the 
people  is  undoubtedly  reflected  in  the  financial  condition  of  their 
churches.  Whether  this  giving  is  proportionately  as  great  as  the 
wealth  represented  in  these  counties,  is  a  subject  for  further  study, 
but  however  viewed  these  totals  are  impressive. 

Of  the  entire  amount  raised  Stanislaus  County  with  60  per  cent 
of  the  combined  active  membership  contributes  a  little  more  than 

51 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

fifty  per  cent.     The  following  table  gives  the  comparative  financial 
situation : 

CONTRIBUTIONS  BY  CONGREGATIONS 

TABLE  A. 
Average  Total  Raised  By 


Town 
Churches 

Village 
Churches 

Country 
Churches 

County 
Average 

Orange    County 

.  .  .  .$7401.34 

$3189.05 

$1468.58 

$3053.13 

Stanislaus    Countv    . 

.    "UOQ.32 

2423.50 

1866.80 

3104.40 

TABLE  B. 

Average  Per  Capita  Contributions 

Town  Village        Country          County 

Churches      Churches    Churches        Average 

Orange   County    $34-22  $39.39  $36.29  $37.29 

Stanislaus  County   25.48  34.64  19.79  28.02 

One  explanation  of  the  difference  between  the  two  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  average  gross  income  per  farm  in  Orange  County  is 
$6,096  as  against  $3,754  in  Stanislaus  County.  As  nearly  as  can 
be  determined  from  government  census  figures,  which  at  this  writing 
are  not  entirely  complete,  the  difference  in  net  income  is  even  more 
in  favor  of  the  southern  county.  The  towns  are  so  largely  depen- 
dent upon  the  farmers  for  their  prosperity  that  these  figures  assume 
a  significance  for  every  type  of  community. 

Another  reason  for  the  difference  probably  lies  in  the  fact  that 
the  churches  of  Orange  County  have  been  more  ready  to  try  some 
of  the  more  modern  systems  of  church  finance.  Here  all  but  three 
of  the  churches  use  the  budget  system  and  all  but  ten  have  the 
envelope  system  and  every  member  canvass.  Every  one  of  the 
town  churches  falls  into  the  last  class.  As  a  result  their  average 
per  capita  contributions  are  $34.23  ;  in  the  villages  of  Orange  County 
the  per  capita  contribution  of  the  churches  with  a  budget  system 
and  an  every  member  canvass  is  $44.79 ;  of  those  churches  without 
such  financial  system,  $28.93.  The  advantage  is  most  decidedly 
with  the  churches  using  the  most  efficient  system.  The  ranges  in 
per  capita  contributions  are  interesting  because  they  show  the  vary- 
ing response  of  the  membership  to  the  church  and  its  program.  In 
town,  the  highest  record  for  per  capita  giving  is  $48.43  per  member, 
and  the  lowest  is  $23.66.  In  villages,  the  highest  record  is  $160.52 
per  member,  and  the  lowest  is  $10.04;  while  in  country  churches, 
the  highest  is  $45.81  per  member  and  the  lowest  is  $8.96. 

52 


CHURCH  EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 

The  average  per  capita  contribution  for  the  churches  of  this 
entire  county,  as  noted  above,  is  $37.29.  This  is  more  than  double 
the  record  made  in  the  eastern  county  selected  for  comparison, 
though  the  gross  income  per  farm  in  Orange  County  is  but  little 
more  than  10  per  cent  above  that  of  the  eastern  county. 

The  average  is  40  per  cent  higher  than  that  of  the  middle 
western  county  mentioned.  While  differences  in  average  gross 
farm  income  between  these  two  counties  and  Orange  County  are 
small  they  are  markedly  different  in  several  other  particulars.  In 


EFFECT    OF    SYSTEM 
IN   CHURCH    FINANCE 

IN    VILLAGE    CHURCHES 

Annual  Amount  Contributed  per  Active  Member 
$44.79 


$28.93 


Without  Efficient*         With  Efficient 
Financial  System  Financial  System 

*A  budget  for  all  money  raised  and 
an  every  member  canvass. 


CHART    I 


Orange  County,  for  instance,  six-sevenths  of  the  farmers  are  owner- 
operators  as  against  two-thirds  in  the  eastern  and  less  than  half 
in  the  middle  western  county.  In  these  two  latter  counties  approxi- 
mately 60  per  cent  of  the  farms  are  mortgaged  to  about  one-half 
their  value,  whereas  in  Orange  County  only  a  little  more  than  40 
per  cent  of  the  farms  are  mortgaged  to  about  one-quarter  of  their 
value.  While  these  economic  factors  do  not  condition  giving  they 
probably  do  affect  it  to  a  considerable  degree. 

In  considering  these  figures  it  should  be  remembered  that  in 
the  last  decade  school  appropriations  have  increased  five  times  as 
rapidly  as  the  population  and  are  now  450  per  cent  higher  than  in 
1910.  Bank  deposits  in  the  same  period  also  increased  400  per  cent. 

53 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

Church  membership  more  than  doubled.  It  would  be  reasonable  to 
expect  a  high  rate  of  giving.  It  was  not  possible  to  secure  com- 
plete satisfactory  financial  records  for  all  churches  for  ten  years 
ago.  Such  records  as  were  available  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
church  contributions  have  not  kept  pace  proportionately  with  school 
appropriations.  It  would  furnish  interesting  and  valuable  material 
for  any  church  with  accurate  records  to  compare  its  own  gains  in 


THE   CHURCH    HOME   OF   A    FOREIGN-SPEAKING   GROUP 

This  fine  Swedish  Church  at  Turlock,  Stanislaus  County, 
contains  twenty-one  rooms 

membership,  per  capita  giving  and  total  receipts  with  the  records  of 
the  county  schools  and  welfare  agencies. 

Special  conditions  make  the  figures  in  Stanislaus  County  as 
high  as  they  are.  There  are  a  number  of  Seventh  Day  Adventist 
churches  in  the  county  whose  members  tithe  their  incomes.  Two 
congregations  during  the  year  covered  by  the  survey  held  successful 
building  campaigns  which  materially  increased  their  averages.  The 
ranges  in  per  capita  giving  are  greater  in  this  county  than  in  the 
other.  One  town  church  averages  $123.25  and  one  small  country 
church  $156.00.  Payment  on  a  debt  accounted  for  76  per  cent  of 

54 


CHURCH  EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 

the  money  raised  in  one  of  these  churches  and  in  the  other,  half 
the  budget  was  contributed  by  one  man. 

The  largest  and  most  valuable  church  buildings  in  the  two 
counties  are  the  property  of  the  Swedish  congregations.  To  them 
belong  16  per  cent  of  the  churches  as  well  as  27  per  cent  of  the 
active  members  in  Stanislaus  County.  The  per  capita  contributions 
for  their  town  churches  is  $27.80,  and  for  their  village  churches, 
$50.46.  The  average  for  all  their  seven  churches  is  $31.07.  Thus 
they  exceed  the  average  for  their  county.  All  but  one  of  their 
churches  belong  to  the  liturgical  denominations.  None  of  them 
are  more  than  fifteen  years  old.  This  group  of  people  and  their 
churches  are  an  inspiring  witness  to  what  can  happen  in  rural 
America  when  any  group  properly  led  and  inspired  sets  out  to 


HOW   THE   CHURCH    DOLLAR     15    RAISED 

TOWN  VILLAGE  COUNTRY 

CHURCHES  CHURCHES  CHURCHES 


OTHER  METH 

k    ^^  ^^ 

COULEC 


UB5CRIPTK3N 


CHART   II 

found    new    institutions.     They    have    prospered    materially    and 
spiritually,  though  they  still  have  many  problems  to  solve. 

In  Stanislaus  County  religious  work  in  the  less  favored  agricul- 
tural sections  is,  as  will  be  shown  subsequently,  almost  non-existent. 
This  is  not  the  case  in  Orange  County  where  churches  are  still  at 
work  in  such  sections.  Here  there  are  some  communities  which 
economically  are  entirely  or  predominatingly  supported  by  the  oil 
industry.  Attention  has  been  drawn  to  the  fact  that  these  com- 
munities have  a  slightly  larger  average  investment  in  church  build- 
ings than  the  others.  A  comparison  of  per  capita  giving  by  types 
of  communities  is  instructive.  The  church  members  in  the  best 
agricultural  regions  average  $41.69  per  year,  those  in  the  oil  com- 
munities $35.18  and  those  in  the  less  fertile  sections,  $23.76.  Since 

55 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

the  oil  communities  pay  a  higher  salary  to  their  pastors  by  about 
$200,  it  follows  that  the  churches  in  the  irrigated  sections  are  con- 
tributing by  far  the  largest  proportion  to  benevolences.  The  mis- 
sionary appeal  needs  to  be  stressed  always  but  especially  in  these 
oil  centers. 

Most  of  the  money  of  the  churches  is  raised  by  subscription. 
Of  every  dollar,  seventy  cents  comes  in  this  way,  seventeen  cents 
from  collection  and  thirteen  cents  from  other  methods.  Town 
churches  raise  eighty  cents  of  each  dollar  in  this  way.1 

An  analysis  of  the  distribution  of  the  church  dollar  indicates 
that  it  is  divided  almost  equally  under  three  heads :  salaries,  benevo- 
lences and  all  other  purposes.  Town,  village  and  country  churches 


HOW  THE  CHURCH  DOLLAR  15  EXPENDED 


TOWN  VILLAGE  COUNTRY 

CHURCHES  CHURCHES  CHURCHES 


MISSION:       

&  >^  BENtVOLRNCE 

BENEVOLENCES 

bENEVOLENCES 

aes 


CHART    III 

spend  thirty-eight,  twenty-seven  and  thirty-three  cents  respectively 
for  benevolences.2 

These  proportions  mean  that  the  average  member  of  the  town 
churches  of  Orange  County  gives  $15.57  a  vear  f°r  missions  and 
benevolences  or  nearly  twice  as  much  as  he  contributes  for  his 
pastor's  salary. 

A  still  further  comparison  is  possible.  The  city  churches  in 
Orange  County  have  been  surveyed.  While  one  city  church  with 
more  than  200  members  reaches  the  high  per  capita  contribution 
of  $71.25,  the  average  per  capita  of  the  city  churches  is  $20.78, 
46  per  cent  of  which  goes  to  missions  and  benevolences.  The  city 
churches  of  Orange  County  are  very  strong.  A  number  of  them 

1  See  Appendix,  Tables  V  and  VI. 

2  See  Appendix,  Table  VII. 

56 


CHURCH  EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 

have  more  than  500  members,  several  exceed  1,000.  Their  per 
capita  contributions,  however,  are  barely  half  that  of  the  village 
churches  in  the  same  county  and  are  only  55  per  cent  of  the  average 
per  capita  contribution  of  all  the  town  and  country  churches  of  this 
county.  This  is  too  often  the  case  in  counties  like  this.  Larger 
churches  can  maintain  a  comparatively  high  level  of  expenditure 
on  relatively  small  per  capita  gifts.  Thus  when  memberships  are 
large  there  is  not  the  struggle  to  sustain  the  organization  nor  is 
there  quite  the  incentive  to  give  for  local  purposes  that  exists  in 
the  average  village  or  country  church.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  city  churches,  splendid  as  their  benevolence  record  is,  could 
very  materially  increase  their  contribution.  This  becomes  the  more 
clear  when  the  record  of  these  churches  is  compared  with  those  in 
a  typical  frontier  county  in  northeastern  Washington  where  agri- 
cultural life  is  just  taking  root,  where  conditions  of  sacrifice  and 
great  hardship  still  prevail,  and  where  land  costs  ten  times  as  much 
to  clear  as  to  buy.  Even  under  these  circumstances  the  members 
of  the  country  churches  in  this  county,  debt  burdened  as  they  are, 
give  $36.53  per  capita.  The  entire  county  averages  $24.98  per 
capita.  Considering  their  resources,  such  figures  make  the  giving 
in  the  California  counties  look  small  indeed. 

One  fact  which  runs  all  through  these  figures  on  giving  is  the 
high  proportion  of  the  total  budget  which  goes  for  missions  and 
benevolences.  Before  the  war  it  was  the  exceptional  rural  church 
which  gave  as  much  as  25  per  cent  of  its  income  to  causes  related 
to  the  larger  interests  of  the  Kingdom.  Today  it  is  no  uncommon 
thing  to  find  whole  counties  making  this  record.  The  possibilities 
of  missionary  giving  have  not,  however,  been  exhausted  by  any 
means.  An  analysis  of  the  individual  records  of  the  churches  shows 
that  of  the  eighty-four  churches  only  thirty-six  or  43  per  cent 
reached  the  25  per  cent  level. 

HOME    MISSION    AID 

At  first  sight  it  would  appear  that  little  home  mission  aid  was 
needed  in  these  counties.  They  are  well  able  to  care  for  their  own 
religious  needs,  at  least  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  total  re- 
sources and  their  total  unmet  needs.  Home  mission  aid,  however, 
is  seldom  distributed  from  this  point  of  view.  Thus  it  is  that  one- 
third  of  the  town  and  country  churches  in  Orange  County  and  one- 
quarter  of  those  in  Stanislaus  County  are  sustained  by  grants  of 
home  mission  money,  totalling  $4,615  per  year.  This  is  exclusive, 

57 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

of  course,  of  sums  granted  for  the  Mexican  or  Japanese  work. 
Of  this  sum,  Orange  County  receives  approximately  one-third, 
$1,000  of  which  goes  to  nine  churches  which  are  the  only  ones  in 
their  communities.  Such  aid  can  be  justified. 

In  Stanislaus  County  the  situation  is  quite  different.  Eighty 
per  cent  of  the  total  appropriations  made  to  the  churches  within 
this  county  goes  to  overchurched  communities.  Three  of  the 
churches  so  aided  are  in  a  community  served  by  six  Protestant 
bodies.  These  three  are  allowed  $1,220.  One  of  them  with  a 
membership  of  less  than  fifty  receives  $720  a  year.  Two  other 
aided  churches  divide  a  field  with  five  more  self-supporting  congre- 
gations. One  of  these  has  just  had  its  grant  increased  to  $40  a 
month.  All  recent  grants  of  aid  and  all  increases  in  aid  to  churches 
within  this  county  have  been  given  to  churches  in  communities  in 
which  there  were  already  strong  self-supporting  churches  with 
resident  pastors. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  only  community  where  home  mission 
aid  has  been  discontinued  the  church  so  assisted  was  the  only  one 
at  work.  It  has  not  only  been  helped  to  self-support  but  has  also 
been  led  to  do  one  of  the  best  pieces  of  work  in  the  county.  Among 
other  things  it  has  established  a  Daily  Vacation  Bible  School  which 
enrolls  as  many  children  of  the  foreign-born  as  of  the  American- 
born,  English-speaking  parents. 

In  the  last  decade  $15,470  has  been  poured  into  these  competitive 
congregations,  some  of  which  have  had  help  for  thirty  years.  Since 
the  beginning  of  the  last  decade  the  sum  has  been  steadily  increased 
until  it  is  double  what  it  then  was,  amounting  now  to  $2,550  a  year. 
With  hardly  an  exception  the  churches  which  have  been  aided  to 
sustain  their  life  in  a  competitive  struggle  have  failed  to  show  any 
material  advance  in  members  or  influence.  One  of  the  succeeding 
chapters  will  show  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  untouched  territory 
in  Stanislaus  County.  There  are  several  communities  in  the  dry 
farming  areas  that  have  church  buildings  but  which,  lacking  aid, 
have  been  unable  to  sustain  religious  services.  These  are  left  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  an  overworked  Sunday  school  missionary 
whose  territory  covers  seven  counties  and  who  visits  them  once  a 
quarter.  An  ordained  man,  equipped  with  a  car,  could  be  employed 
to  reach  these  points  with  the  money  that  is  now  wasted  in  com- 
petitive theological  armaments.  Similarly,  in  Orange  County, 
$1,000  a  year  missionary  aid  is  extended  to  five  small  city  churches, 
the  average  membership  of  which  is  forty-two  and  all  of  which 
must  compete  with  strong  churches  with  large  plants  and  hundreds 

58 


CHURCH  EQUIPMENT  AND  FINANCE 

of  members.  Taking  city  and  country  together,  it  is  impossible 
to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  $4,100  of  the  home  mission  aid  granted 
to  these  two  wealthy  counties  is  allotted  to  churches  in  communities 
that  are  adequately  cared  for  without  them.  These  funds  are  being 
spent,  therefore,  not  so  much  for  missions,  for  telling  the  good  news 
where  it  is  not  known,  for  extending  the  influence  and  power  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  needy  sections,  as  for  sustaining  denomina- 
tional organizations  for  the  sake  of  a  comparatively  small  and  de- 
creasing group  of  people  and  the  glory  of  the  annual  reports. 
Granted  the  right  of  people  to  give  for  such  a  purpose  if  they  desire, 
they  should  cease  from  degrading  the  high  meaning  of  the  term  by 
calling  funds  so  spent  "missionary  money,"  when  untouched  fields 
lie  directly  adjoining  those  which  are  over-cultivated. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  MINISTERS 

THESE  Californian counties  have  drawn  their  population  from 
all  over  the  world.     Occident  and  Orient  meet  here.     Nearly 
every  state  in  the  Union  is  represented.     The  task  of  welding 
these  people  into  harmonious,  mutually  respecting  groups,  of  mar- 
shalling the  constructive   forces   for   social   progress,   of   infusing 
spiritual  aims  and  motives  into  the  struggle  for  an  ever  more  satis- 
fying life,  all  this  and  more  is  the  task  of  the  Church,  and  pre- 
eminently the  success  of  the  task   depends   upon  her  individual 
leaders,  the  ministers. 

There  is  an  unusually  high  proportion  of  ministers  to  churches 
in  these  counties.  Indeed,  this  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Pacific 
Coast,  where  the  average  number  of  churches  to  each  minister  is 
only  one  and  three-tenths.  The  counties  here  considered  better  even 
this  record.  At  the  time  of  the  survey  seventy-four  ministers  were 
serving  eighty  churches.  Four  churches  were  pastorless.  For  any 
two  counties  to  show  a  record  such  as  this,  practically  one  church  to 
a  minister,  is  worthy  of  commendation.  It  is  a  situation  that  ought 
to  exist  everywhere  but  it  is  too  rarely  found.  It  gives  to  the 
churches  of  these  counties  an  unusual  advantage.  The  people 
believe  in  having  the  whole  of  a  man  for  one  whole  church.  They 
are  convinced  that  part  of  a  man  cannot  do  a  whole  man's  job. 
It  is  the  more  to  be  regretted,  therefore,  that  the  distribution  of  the 
churches  and  ministers  is  that  which  was  described  in  the  last 
chapter  under  the  analysis  of  home  mission  aid.  The  counties  have 
both  the  resources  and  the  men  to  reach  every  last  community  and 
family  if  they  were  differently  distributed. 

Sixty-nine  of  the  seventy-five  ministers  give  their  entire  time 
to  the  work  of  the  church  and  sixty-seven  or  84  per  cent  of  them  are 
resident  within  the  parishes  of  their  churches.  This  record  is 
nearly  two  and  one-half  times  above  the  average  for  the  Pacific 
Coast.  Six  ministers  have  other  occupations  in  addition  to  their 
task  of  church  leadership.  This  is  only  8  per  cent  as  against  13 
per  cent  for  the  Pacific  Coast  region.  Those  pastors  who  do  not 
live  with  their  people  are  not  far  away,  and  the  few  who  have 

60 


THE  MINISTERS 

circuits  do  not  have  to  travel  far.  One  man  comes  from  without 
the  county,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  to  serve  one  church  in  Stanis- 
laus County,  but  this  is  the  exception.  Apart  from  that  instance 
only  three  pastors  travel  more  than  ten  miles  and  with  such  excellent 
roads  such  a  distance  is  not  a  serious  matter. 

One  factor  in  keeping  a  resident  pastor  is  an  adequate  parson- 
age. To  expect  a  minister  to  meet  the  housing  problem  in  every 
new  field  is  to  expect  the  impossible,  yet  too  often  the  rural  church 
furnishes  no  manse.  In  these  counties,  of  the  eighty-two  churches 
owning  their  buildings  only  fifty  have  parsonages.  This  is  a  low 
figure,  unworthy  of  the  resources  of  the  churches  and  the  more  sur- 
prising when  it  is  remembered  that  sixty-seven  of  these  churches 
command  the  entire  time  of  their  pastors.  Seventy-one  per  cent 
of  the  communities  have  each  at  least  one  minister  in  residence, 
whereas  the  average  for  the  Pacific  Coast  is  only  24  per  cent. 

Next  to  a  resident  minister  the  greatest  asset  that  a  church  can 
have  is  one  who  sticks  to  his  job.  Too  many  ministers  are  becoming 
migrant  laborers.  The  last  years  have  seen  a  rapid  decrease,  all 
over  the  country,  in  the  average  length  of  pastorate,  even  at  a  time 
when  denominations  which  moved  their  men  frequently  were  be- 
ginning to  recognize  the  desirability  of  lengthening  the  period  of 
service  given  to  any  one  church.  In  this  respect  there  is  a  marked 
difference  between  the  two  countries.  Orange  County  has  fourteen 
churches  which  have  made  either  no  change  or  only  one  in  minis- 
terial leadership  during  the  last  decade.  This  is  35  per  cent  of  the 
total  number.  In  Stanislaus  County  only  six  churches  or  14  per 
cent  have  made  this  record  while  one-third  have  changed  every  two 
years  or  oftener.  Considering  all  the  ministers  we  find  that  they 
have  been  in  the  service  an  average  of  nineteen  and  one-half  years 
but  that  they  have  been  in  their  present  charges  -but  three  and  one- 
third  years.  A  long  time  in  the  ministry  but  a  short  time  in  their 
present  fields  would  characterize  the  experience  of  the  great  ma- 
jority. Always  a  handicap  to  effective  work,  this  situation  is  doubly 
unfortunate  in  counties  which  are  changing  and  growing  as  rapidly 
as  are  these.  To  a  new  minister  all  the  people  are  new.  He  can- 
not differentiate  between  his  church  members  and  the  newcomers  in 
the  community.  He  must  spend  time  getting  acquainted  with  his 
members,  some  of  which  might  otherwise  be  utilized  in  visiting 
newcomers.  This  situation  is  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  people 
coming  to  Stanislaus  County,  who  formerly  were  members  of 
churches,  so  often  do  not  affiliate  with  the  local  churches. 

Business  concerns  assume  that  executives  in  responsible  positions 

61 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

will  need  from  one  to  several  years  of  training  in  order  to  gather 
experience  necessary  before  they  can  do  their  most  efficient  work. 
The  Church  deals  in  the  most  serious  and  important  business  of 
making  men  and  communities  Christian.  A  minister  is  an  execu- 
tive of  an  organization  and  expected  to  use  the  highest  degree  of 
insight  and  sympathy  in  dealing  with  human  beings,  and  of  social 
statesmanship  in  dealing  with  communities.  It  takes  time  for  the 
minister  to  win  the  confidence  of  his  people. 

It  is  possible  that  the  difference  between  the  two  counties  in  the 
length  of  ministerial  residence  finds  its  partial  explanation  in  a 
difference  that  exists  in  the  salaries  paid.  This  can  best  be  shown 
in  the  two  tables  following: 

THE  MINISTERIAL  PAY  ROLL 
TABLE  C. 

Number  of  Ministers  Giving  Full  Time 
Range  of  Salaries  Stanislaus  County         Orange  County 

No  specified  Salary   2  o 

$   500  or  less   i  o 

501  to     750   I  o 

751  to   1,000   2  2 

i,ooi  to  1,250  10  2 

1,251  to  1,500   ii  7 

1,501  to  1,750  5  9 

1,751  to  2,000  o  6 

Over  $2,000  5  5 

37  31 

Salaries  may  be  further  classified  as  follows : 


TABLE  D. 

Stanislaus 

Orange 

Full  time     Part  time 
Ministers     Ministers 
With  one      With  one 
Church        Church 

Full  time       Part  time 
Ministers        Ministers 
With  one        With  one 
Church           Church 

.$2350             $1000 
.     750                970 
.  1486                990 

$2650             $1980 
770                950 
1690               1552 

Maximum  salary  paid 
Minimum         " 
Average  " 

The  figures  in  both  the  above  tables  arbitrarily  include  $250 
added  to  the  cash  income  reported  wherever  the  minister  had  free 
parsonage  privileges,  as  representing  the  estimated  cash  value  of 
the  parsonage. 

The  modal  average  (i.e.  the  salary  most  frequently  paid)  for 
the  whole  of  Orange  County  is  between  $1,750  and  $1,800.  In 
Stanislaus  County  it  is  between  $1,200  and  $1,500,  which  is  no 

62 


THE  MINISTERS 

higher  than  the  average  of  many  counties  in  the  Middle  West  and 
East.  In  considering  the  advantage  which  the  southern  county  has 
over  the  other  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  average  value  of  its 
farms  is  almost  twice  as  great,  that  the  average  value  of  an  acre 
of  farm  land  is  likewise  much  larger,  and  that  in  this  county  also 
there  are  fewer  churches  for  a  larger  number  of  people,  though 
not,  as  we  shall  see,  for  a  larger  number  of  actual  members.  The 
differences  in  salary  are  only  what  would  be  expected,  furthermore, 
from  the  differences  in  per  capita  giving.  The  twenty-eight  pastors 
of  the  city  churches  in  Orange  County  who  give  their  entire  time 
to  the  ministry  receive  from  $750  to  $3,000  a  year  with  a  mathe- 
matical average  of  $1,702  and  a  modal  average  of  from  $2,400  to 
$2,700.  City  ministers  are,  therefore,  better  paid  than  those  in 
town  and  country.  The  ministry  is,  however,  more  remunerative 
than  school  teaching,  especially  in  Orange  County,  though,  of  course, 
most  clergymen  have  greater  expense  and  are  required  to  work 
more  months  in  a  year. 

The  training  of  the  ministers  is  a  point  of  interest.  Judged  by 
accepted  standards,  the  record  of  these  two  counties  is  not  what 
might  be  expected,  although  slightly  better  than  the  average  for 
the  Pacific  Coast.  In  the  twenty-six  counties  studied  in  this  region 
one-third  of  the  ministers  were  found  to  have  had  college  and  semi- 
nary training  and  38  per  cent  had  received  no  professional  prepara- 
tion for  their  life-work.  In  these  two  counties  36  per  cent  have 
had  the  full,  traditional  training  and  30  per  cent  have  had  no  special 
preparation.  The  others  have)  attended  either  college  or  Bible 
school.  Many  of  the  untrained  and  partially  trained  clergymen  are 
doing  splendid  work,  but  in  several  respects  those  with  the  longer 
preparation  have  an  advantage.  The  college  and  seminary  trained 
ministers  are  also  serving  the  larger  churches.  They  have  a  slight 
advantage  in  salary,  averaging  about  two  hundred  dollars  a  year. 
Other  differences  will  develop  as  we  proceed. 

Every  minister  interviewed  by  the  field  investigators  was  asked 
to  express  himself  on  the  future  of  his  field  and  on  its  special  prob- 
lems. A  great  majority,  representing  sixty-four  of  the  seventy- 
seven  congregations  whose  ministers  were  thus  questioned,  charac- 
terized the  future  in  optimistic  terms.  "Bright,"  "good,"  "very 
good,"  "excellent,"  "quite  fair,"  were  the  terms  constantly  used. 
Only  seven  churches  seem  to  have  an  uncertain  future.  Six  fear 
the  years  ahead  will  bring  definite  loss  and  perhaps  death  to  their 
organizations.  The  problems  faced  by  the  ministers  in  Stanislaus 
County  were  of  the  kind  met  everywhere.  The  young  people  con- 

63 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

cerned  some,  the  lack  of  equipment  others.  Dearth  of  leaders  was 
a  handicap  and  the  indifference  of  the  multitude  was  always  felt. 
In  some  communities  the  pushing  in  of  the  Portuguese  and  the  de- 
parture of  the  English-speaking  population  have  brought  real  prob- 
lems to  the  churches.  Orange  County  pastors  faced  most  of  these 
problems,  but  for  them  they  are  intensified  by  the  necessity  of  three 
shifts  per  day,  seven  days  per  week  in  the  oil  fields  and  most  of  all 
by  the  proximity  of  the  beach  resorts  and  the  canyons  which  ever 
tempt  people  away  from  church  and  into  the  open.  One  pastor 
summed  up  the  situation  in  this  pungent  sentence :  "Chief  prob- 
lems? To  make  the  people  love  the  Lord  as  they  do  the  climate." 


64 


CHAPTER  VII 
CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 

OUT  of  a  total  estimated  population  of  120,000,  the  evangelical 
churches  have  approximately  20,085  members.1     This  figure, 
of  course,  covers  city  and  country  and  includes  all  classes  of 
membership,    active,    inactive    and    non-resident.     The    town    and 
country  churches  account  for  9,442  of  this  total  of  whom  7,951  are 


PROTESTANT  CHURCH    MEMBERS 
IN    POPULATION 


CHART  IV 

active  members.  In  this  survey  an  active  member  is  defined  as  one 
who  attends  church  at  least  occasionally  and  who  contributes  to  its 
support.  Thus  defined  84  per  cent  of  the  membership  are  in  the 
active  class.  The  resident  church  membership  amounts  to  n  per 
cent  of  the  total  rural  population.  Thus  these  counties  exceed  the 
rural  regional  average  for  the  Pacific  Coast  which  is  approximately 
7  per  cent.  They  make,  however,  a  poorer  record  than  every  other 
section  of  America  except  the  Rocky  Mountain  States. 

Although  Orange  County  has  the  larger  population  its  church 

1  This  figure  is  obtained  by  adding  sufficiently  to  the  Federal  Religious 
Census  total  for  1916  to  coyer  growth,  and  assumes  that  growth  has  been 
on  the  same  ratio  to  population  in  the  five  years  following  this  census  as  in 
the  ten  years  preceding. 

65 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

membership  is  much  the  smaller.  Its  active  membership  roll  con- 
tains 3,205  names  as  against  4,746  in  Stanislaus  County.  The  total 
is  7>9SI-  1°  addition  there  are  515  resident  but  inactive  members 
and  976  non-residents.  Thus  the  grand  total  is  9442.1 

Males  comprise  43  per  cent  of  the  total  membership,  females  57 
per  cent.  Young  people  under  twenty-one  account  for  a  little  more 
than  one-quarter  of  the  members,  girls  having  a  slight  advantage 
over  boys  in  this  group. 


RESIDENCE  AND  ACTIVITY 
OF  CHURCH  MEMBERS 

84  PROTESTANT  CHURCHES 
WITH  ENROLLMENT  OF  9442 

10.3%  Non-Resident 
5.5%  In- Active 


84.2%  Active 


^89.7  %  of 
Total  Roll 
are  Resident 


*An  Inactive  member  is  one  who  does  not 
attend  church  or  contribute  ro  its  support. 


CHART  V 


The  average  active  membership  per  church  is  108  in  Stanislaus 
County  and  eighty  in  Orange.  The  difference  is  largely  in  the 
country  churches  where  the  figures  for  the  two  are  ninety-one  and 
forty.  Town  churches  average  213  and  village  churches,  seventy- 
one  active  members  per  congregation. 


GAIN   AND   LOSS 


In  the  light  of  these  general  facts  and  remembering  that  in  the 
aggregate  the  combined  city  and  country   church  membership  is 

1  See  Appendix,  Table  VIII. 

66 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 

increasing  more  rapidly  than  the  population  the  growth  and  decline 
of  the  churches  may  be  analyzed. 

Forty-eight  or  57  per  cent  of  the  churches  of  these  counties 
made  a  net  gain  in  membership  during  the  year  preceding  the  survey. 
Of  the  remainder  twenty  or  24  per  cent  lost  ground  and  sixteen  or 
19  per  cent  showed  no  change.  The  total  gross  gain  of  all  churches 
was  1,374  or  21  per  cent  of  the  former  net  active  membership  of  all 
churches.  The  total  loss  in  membership  was  594.  Thus  there  was 
a  net  gain  of  780  or  12  per  cent  of  the  active  membership.  This  is 
a  very  good  record  compared  to  the  average  for  a  normal  area  or 
for  a  denomination.  Anything  less  than  this,  however,  would  be 
almost  a  confession  of  failure  in  counties  like  these  in  which  popula- 
tion and  resources  are  increasing  so  rapidly.  As  it  is,  only  a  few 
more  than  half  the  churches  showed  a  net  gain.  Thirty-four  of  the 
forty-eight  churches  which  showed  a  net  increase  added  more  than 
ten  per  cent  of  their  former  membership.  Their  gains  totaled  901 
members  or  two-thirds  of  the  total  gross  gain  made  by  all  churches. 

The  combined  gain  of  all  churches  through  letter  from  other 
churches  was  707,  slightly  more  than  half  the  total.  The  evangelistic 
return  through  confession  of  faith  or  confirmation  was  667  and 
exceeded  by  only  seventy-three,  or  less  than  one  person  per  church, 
the  aggregate  loss  from  all  sources.  In  Orange  County  the  evan- 
gelistic gain  was  more  than  100  less  than  the  total  loss.  It  is 
natural  under  the  circumstances  that  the  accessions  by  letter  should 
be  considerable,  but  the  fact  that  the  membership  figures  in  the  more 
populous  county  show  a  net  loss  without  such  accessions  is  an 
unhealthy  sign.  Orange  and  Stanislaus  counties  are  far  from  the 
pioneer  stage  and  the  evangelistic  return  should  far  exceed  the 
losses,  and  this  indeed  it  more  than  does  in  the  younger  county  to 
the  north.  It  is  in  Orange  County,  the  older  and  more  populous  of 
the  two,  that  the  serious  discrepancy  between  these  two  figures 
occurs. 

One  proof  that  these  counties  have  passed  from  the  pioneer 
stages  is  to  be  found  in  a  study  of  the  relation  of  size  of  congrega- 
tion to  growth.  In  a  rapidly  developing,  new  country,  most 
churches  are  small  and  most  of  them  are  growing  regardless  of  size ; 
but  as  life  becomes  stable  the  small  church,  with  its  poorer  equip- 
ment and  its  inability  to  retain  a  resident  minister  on  full  time, 
begins  to  decline  both  actually  and  relatively.  This  is  now  the 
situation  in  these  counties.  It  can  be  visualized  in  the  following 
table  which  gives  the  record  for  the  year  preceding  the  survey  • 

67  ' 


I-  2S  . 

17 

26-  so  . 

15 

5I-IOO  

19 

IOI-I50  

13 

Over  iso  . 

2O 

IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

GAINS  IN  MEMBERSHIP  BY  SIZE  OF  CONGREGATIONS 
(One  Year  Period) 

TABLE  E. 
Churches  with 

Net  Active  Number  Number  Percent 

Membership  of —  Congregations  Gaining  Gaining 

5  294 

5  33-3 

13  68.4 

9  69.2 

16  80. 

When  a  church  with  less  than  fifty  members  fails  to  gain  the 
future  for  that  church  begins  to  look  dubious.  Twenty  of  the 
thirty-two  churches  in  this  class  are  up  against  a  real  fight  for  life. 
A  few  of  them  could  well  be  spared.  Others  ought  by  all  means 
to  be  sustained. 

It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  with  only  thirty-two  out  of 
eighty-four  churches  or  38  per  cent  having  less  than  fifty  members 
these  two  counties  are  more  fortunate  than  the  average.  Every 
region  but  one  of  those  studied  has  shown  50  per  cent  or  more  of  its 
churches  in  this  class  and  the  exception  has  45  per  cent.  Among 
the  rural  Pacific  Coast  counties  the  average  number  of  churches  in 
this  class  is  55  per  cent  of  the  total. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  an  analysis  on  the  basis  of  one  year 
does  not  always  do  justice  to  every  church.  One  of  the  largest 
churches,  for  instance,  had  but  recently  subjected  its  membership 
roll  to  a  vigorous  pruning.  All  but  nine  of  the  churches  have 
membership  records  going  back  at  least  five  years.  A  study  of  these 
but  confirms  the  conclusions  reached  above.  The  table  below  gives 
a  concrete  view  of  the  situation  on  the  basis  of  a  five-year  member- 
ship record. 

GROWTH  AND  DECLINE  OF  CHURCHES 

(Five  Year  Period) 

TABLE  F. 


Churches  with 

Present  Total 

Active  Member 

Number  of 

Number 

Per  cent 

Number 

Number 

ship  of  — 

Churches 

Growing 

Growing 

Stationary 

Declining 

i    to  50    

24 

8 

33.3 

7 

9 

Si    to    iso    . 

"?O 

2S 

83.3 

I 

4 

Over  150  

.  .  .  .            21 

18 

85.7 

I 

2 

Totals    

7S 

Si 

67 

9 

15 

68 

CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 

The  small  church,  often  a  divisive  element  in  the  community,  is 
the  least  successful.  It  is  to  such  churches  in  Stanislaus  County 
and  in  the  cities  of  Orange  County  that  most  of  the  home  mission 
aid  is  extended. 

OCCUPATION    OF    CHURCH    MEMBERS 

Of  the  town  and  country  church  members,  2,358  are  gainfully 
employed  and  of  this  number  1,699  are  farmers.  The  distribution 
of  these  is  interesting  and  here  the  facts  of  Orange  County  may  be 
taken  as  typical  because  in  this  county  we  have  the  advantage  of  a 


RELATION  OF   SIZE 
OF  CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP   TO  GAIN 

OF  24     CHURCHES  OF   51     CHURCHES 

with  memberships    of    less    th£n    50  with   memberships  of  50  or  more 

J33 '/. 

gained 


67%, 
did  not  gafn 


SMALL  CHURCHES  LARGE    CHURCHES 

(Durinq  past  five   year  period) 


CHART  VI 


survey  of  the  city  churches.  There  are  647  farmers  on  the  rolls 
of  its  town  and  country  churches.  Of  these  farmers  108  are  re- 
tired and  462  are  owners.  Of  the  owners  only  seventy-nine  are 
identified  with  country  churches,  265  belong  to  village  churches  and 
118  to  town  churches.  There  are  only  thirty-six  farm  tenants  on 
the  church  roll  and  forty-one  farm  laborers  and  here  again  the 
larger  proportion  belongs  to  town  or  village  churches.  Turning  to 
the  records  of  the  city  churches,  it  is  found  that  their  membership 
includes  949  farmers  of  whom  170  are  retired.  Of  the  operating 
farmers  675  are  owners  and  104  are  tenants.  The  city  churches, 
therefore,  have  considerably  more  operating  farmers  in  their  mem- 
bership than  all  the  town,  village  and  country  churches  combined. 

Analyzing  these  figures  we  find  that  a  little  less  than  one-third 
of  the  farm  owners  are  church  members  while  of  the  native  white 

69 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

tenants  one-half  belong  to  some  church.  Of  the  3,869  native  white 
farm  owners,  managers  and  tenants,  1,277  are  church  members  or 
exactly  33  per  cent. 

Farmers  seem  to  prefer  the  trained  pastor.  In  Orange  County 
an  average  of  thirteen  farm  owners  belong  to  the  city,  town  or 
village  church  whose  pastor  has  not  completed  the  full  traditional 
training  of  a  minister,  whereas  thirty-eight  farm  owners  on  the 
average  are  affiliated  with  each  of  the  city,  town  and  village  churches 
which  has  a  college  and  seminary  graduate  for  pastor.  In  Stanis- 
laus County  also  the  college  and  seminary  graduate  leads  by  a 
three-to-two  ratio. 

CHURCH    PARISHES 

As  in  so  many  counties  in  which  the  roads  are  good  and  in 
which  the  communities  are  not  only  heavily  populated  but  close 
together,  church  parish  boundaries  are  difficult  to  determine  because 
the  personal  choice  of  the  people  enters  to  a  large  degree  in  their 
selection  of  a  church.  Within  the  irrigated  and  good  road  area  of 
both  counties  the  majority  of  the  people  can  reach  more  than  one 
Protestant  church  and  often  more  than  one  of  their  own  denomina- 
tion in  less  time  than  the  average  church  member  in  a  large  city  can 
get  to  his  downtown  church.  The  parish  boundaries,  therefore, 
have  been  drawn  to  show  the  average  area  covered  by  the  church 
and  exceptional  instances  have  been  eliminated  as  far  as  possible. 
The  procedure  used  was  to  follow  down  each  road  leading  to  the 
church  and  locate  the  home  of  the  last  regular  attendant  living 
within  a  reasonable  distance.  The  outside  points  on  each  road  were 
then  connected  by  straight  lines. 

The  aspect  of  the  two  counties  differs  considerably.  In  Orange 
County  practically  all  the  area  except  in  the  large  ranch  section  is 
covered  by  the  churches  but  the  proportion  of  membership  to  popu- 
lation is  low.  In  Stanislaus  County  there  is  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  county  that  is  not  reached  by  the  church,  despite  the  fact 
that  its  church  membership  is  larger  than  that  of  the  southern 
county.  Much  of  the  neglected  area  is,  however,  sparsely  settled. 
A  comparison  of  the  county  engineer's  map,  which  locates  every 
farm,  and  the  church  parish  maps  shows  that  in  all  there  are  440 
homes  not  included  within  parish  boundaries.  The  only  areas  that 
are  populated  to  any  extent  and  which  the  church  has  not  yet 
reached  lie  between  Riverbank  and  Oakdale  and  along  the  San 
Joaquin  River.  The  area  to  the  extreme  north  is  also  somewhat 

70 


CHURCH   AND  COMMUNITY    MAP  OF   STANISLAUS  COUNTY,   CALIFORNIA 


71 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

neglected.  Of  course,  not  nearly  all  the  homes  within  the  parish 
boundaries  are  reached  by  the  church  as  the  total  membership  fig- 
ures show.  Assuming  that  there  are  2,200  people  in  the  440  homes 
outside  of  church  parishes,  there  are  still  only  17.6  per  cent  of  the 
population  ivithin  these  parishes  who  are  affiliated  with  the  churches. 

Another  religious  problem  in  this  county  is  that  of  the  rural  area 
surrounding  Modesto  in  which  are  at  least  7,000  people.  Modesto 
city  churches  have  approximately  1,200  members  in  this  area. 
Making  liberal  allowance  for  Roman  Catholic  members  and  for 
children,  a  conservative  estimate  shows  that  there  are  1,800  people, 
over  fifteen  years  of  age,  not  members  of  any  church,  Protestant 
or  Catholic.  With  the  rapid  growth  of  Modesto — 9,241  in  1920, 
from  12,000  to  15,000  today  and  20,000  in  prospect  by  the  end  of 
1923, — it  is  impossible  for  the  city  ministers  to  reach  out  into  con- 
tiguous territory  or  to  do  more  than  take  care  of  their  own  mem- 
bers. Developments  are  too  rapid  for  the  Church  to  keep  pace 
under  the  present  methods  of  administration.  Yet  here  is  a  great 
group  of  people,  probably  larger  than  estimated,  outside  the  fold  of 
the  Church  and  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  city.  It  is  a  tremen- 
dous opportunity. 

In  Stanislaus  County  churches  founded  in  the  non-irrigated 
sections  have  practically  ceased  to  function.  La  Grange,  Knight's 
Ferry,  Westley,  these  communities  on  the  east,  which  are  small  and 
weak  in  comparison  with  those  in  the  rest  of  the  county,  now  receive 
practically  no  religious  attention. 

In  both  counties  there  are  overlapping  parish  boundaries.  This 
is  only  to  be  expected,  especially  in  the  more  populous  centers  where 
there  is  work  for  all  the  stronger  organizations.  Most  of  the  city 
churches  have  pushed  their  parishes  considerably  beyond  their  city 
limits.  They  are  in  no  sense  narrowly  urban  as  was  indicated  in 
the  occupation  analysis  of  their  membership.  Some  of  the  parishes 
extend  for  as  much  as  ten  miles  in  either  direction  from  the  city 
and  thus  include  the  parishes  of  other  churches  of  the  same  de- 
nomination within  the  county.  In  this  situation  is  to  be  noticed 
an  example  of  the  lack  of  strategy  among  and  within  evangelical 
bodies.  Despite  this  fact  there  are  in  Orange  County  only  372 
families  belonging  to  city  churches  who  live  more  than  two  miles 
from  their  church.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  town  and 
country  churches  are  reaching  only  about  10  per  cent  of  the  total 
rural  population  of  the  county.  Even  supposing  that  every  mem- 
ber in  these  families  belongs  to  a  church  it  still  appears  that 

72 


CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 

there  is  a  considerable  field  of  intensive  cultivation  falling  between 
the  churches  within  the  cities  and  those  without. 

The  fact  that  there  are  approximately  4,000  Roman  Catholics  in 
the  county  does  not  alter  this  situation.  The  Catholics  are  concen- 
trated mainly  in  the  cities  and  what  rural  membership  they  have  is 
largely  Mexican.  Making  all  due  allowances,  therefore,  and  taking 
the  most  conservative  estimate  of  the  population  of  Orange  County, 
there  are  at  least  8,000  families  in  the  county  not  affiliated  with  any 
church.  Probably  2,000  of  these  at  least  are  operating  farmers, 
either  owners  or  tenants.  Despite  the  comparatively  small  number 
of  operating  farmers  on  church  membership  rolls,  it  appears  that 
the  churches  have  made  better  relative  progress  in  reaching  this 
Hfroup  than  in  reaching  other  occupational  groups,  since  of  the  total 
town  and  country  population  within  the  county  only  about  10  per 
cent  are  affiliated  with  an  evangelical  church  whereas  one-third  of 
the  operating  farmers  have  such  connection. 

It  is  possible  to  press  these  figures  a  little  further  by  analyzing 
the  impact  of  the  church  in  Orange  County  upon  the  various  types 
of  communities,  such  as  the  more  and  less  favored  agricultural,  the 
oil  and  the  resort.  In  the  first  named,  the  degree  of  evangelization 
by  communities  ranges  from  5  to  26  per  cent  with  only  three  below 
10  per  cent  and  with  a  group  •  average  of  12.7  per  cent.  Those 
communities  which  are  predominantly  or  entirely  oil  in  their  eco- 
nomic life  range  from  6  to  20  and  average  n  per  cent.  One  center, 
partly  oil  and  partly  resort,  lifts  the  whole  average  for  this  class. 
The  pure  resort  communities  average  6.8  per  cent,  but  the  average 
for  the  less  favored  agricultural  areas  is  only  3.2  per  cent.  There 
are  only  167  members  in  seven  of  the  twelve  communities  in  this 
group  which  together  have  a  population  of  5,130.  These  figures 
include  the  Mexican  and  Japanese  Protestant  membership. 

On  the  basis  of  such  an  analysis,  it  is  perfectly  possible  to  deter- 
mine the  areas  of  greatest  need.  Intensively  and  extensively  the 
fields  are  white  to  the  harvest. 


73 


•^  Community    Boundary 
"-Ni.ghborhood   Boundary 

—  Par»h    Boundorif 

—  Por,,h  «  Church  CoxMKtloj 

—  Circuit  «f  P«ftor 


KEY   AND    SYMBOLS 

•  Ham  lit 
«*,!.,„ 
®  Town -ov,r  5.000 
O  Church  -Whrtt 
B  Church  -Colored 

0  Church  -  Wh,t«  with  Paitort  Rmd*nc« 
6  Church- Co lor.d. with  P»tor'j  R«lKi«nc« 


A  Poster*  R»id«ic»  without  Churth-irMi 

4  Poitor'j   Rf  j,d.nc«  witK.ut  Church-Calorid 

•  Abandoned    Church.     CJ  In&Ctire  Church 
SI  Sunday  ScK«cl  without  Church  -Whit* 

8  Sunday  School  ««itti«i.t  Church -C«I«<-W 

•  Church  u«,n9  «co..l    Bid, 


CHURCH   AND  COMMUNITY   MAP 


74 


OF  ORANGE  COUNTY,  CALIFORNIA 


75 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

IN  a  sense  everything  that  a  church  does  is  a  part  of  its  program. 
Its  services  and  its  finances  are  elements  of  prime  importance 
but  they  do  not  exhaust  its  responsibility.  The  important 
question  is  "In  what  do  its  services  of  worship  eventuate?"  And, 
further,  how  does  the  church  serve  its  constituency?  How  does  it 
educate  those  who  know  too  little  of  its  history  and  purpose,  both 
within  and  without  its  organization?  How  does  it  exert  its  influ- 
ence in  the  larger  concerns  of  the  community  and  the  common- 
wealth? What  in  short  does  the  church  do? 

Of  first  importance  is  the  program  of  religious  education.  The 
chief  agency  of  this  is  the  Sunday  school.  Eighty-one  schools  in 
the  two  counties  enroll  a  total  of  10,676,  three  churches  only  being 
without  Sunday  schools.  Stanislaus  County  leads  in  enrollment 
as  it  does  in  church  membership  though  by  a  narrow  margin.  In 
most  essential  particulars  the  schools  of  the  two  counties  are  about 
on  a  par.1  The  average  enrollment  in  the  town  schools  is  274,  in 
the  village  schools  135,  and  in  the  country  schools  eighty-three  while 
for  all  the  schools  together  it  is  131. 

The  average  attendance  averages  about  70  per  cent  of  the  enroll- 
ment. The  best  attendance  record  is  made  by  the  country  schools 
of  Orange  County  with  three-fourths  of  the  enrolled  pupils  regu- 
larly in  attendance,  which  exceeds  the  attendance  record  of  the 
county's  city  church  schools  and  approximates  that  of  its  country 
public  schools. 

One  of  the  most  hopeful  features  of  the  whole  religious  situa- 
tion is  the  fact  that  the  total  Sunday  school  enrollment  exceeds  the 
total  active  church  membership  by  2,725  or  more  than  one-third. 
In  the  villages  the  Sunday  schools  have  a  35  per  cent  larger  member- 
ship than  the  churches  and  in  the  towns  42  per  cent  larger.  Thirty 
of  the  thirty-nine  Sunday  schools  in  Orange  County  have  larger 
membership  rolls  than  the  churches  with  which  they  are  connected. 
The  Sunday  schools  of  both  counties,  therefore,  offer  an  unparal- 
leled opportunity  for  evangelistic  cultivation.  It  is  to  the  Sunday 

1  See  Appendix,  Tables  X  and  XL 

76 


THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

school  above  all  other  religious  organizations  that  the  tenant,  the 
newcomer  and  all  whose  place  in  the  life  of  the  community  is  least 
well  established  first  turn.  Through  it  the  first  contacts  with  the 
church  can  be  made  if  the  church  is  only  keen  to  follow  up  by  visita- 
tion and  pastoral  care  the  opportunity  thus  presented. 

The  number  of  rooms  available  for  the  work  of  the  various 
schools  corresponds  closely  to  the  number  of  rooms  in  their  re- 
spective church  buildings.  Despite  all  the  weakness  of  our  methods 
of  religious  educational  work  churches  have  given  it  a  place  in  their 
activities  only  second  to  worship.  Rooms  have  been  added  to  many 
buildings  to  insure  to  the  classes  privacy  and  quiet  during  the  in- 
struction period.  The  mistake  is  that  rooms  obtained  at  consider- 
able cost  are  usually  used  but  half  an  hour  a  week.  They  should 
be  designed  so  as  to  be  available  for  community  service  and  recrea- 
tion during  the  week. 

Of  the  eighty-one  schools,  thirty-two  have  regular  mission  study, 
either  weekly  or  monthly,  while  seventy-three  send  missionary  offer- 
ings regularly  to  their  denominational  boards.  This  is  an  excep- 
tional record  but  there  is  an  even  greater  distinction.  Forty-nine 
workers  have  gone  from  twenty  schools  into  some  form  of  profes- 
sional Christian  service  in  the  last  decade.  These  recruits  have 
come  from  town,  village  and  country  churches,  and  from  all  de- 
nominations. The  rural  schools,  as  is  often  the  case,  somewhat 
excel  those  of  the  city  in  this  respect. 

Only  fourteen  schools  conduct  classes  to  prepare  pupils  for 
church  membership.  All  told  the  schools  of  these  counties  sent  390 
pupils  into  the  church  membership  last  year,  two-thirds  of  them  in 
Stanislaus  County.  Thus  the  Sunday  schools  supplied  more  than 
one-half  of  all  the  accessions  to  church  membership  through  con- 
firmation or  confession  of  faith,  although  only  a  little  more  than 
half  the  schools  shared  in  this  total.  One  school  contributed  a 
fourth  of  the  accessions  from  this  source  in  its  county  as  the  result 
of  a  very  carefully  worked  up  Decision  Day.  Of  the  other  schools 
observing  this  day,  just  half  report  results.  Practically  all  the  addi- 
tions to  church  membership  from  Sunday  school  ranks  are  reported 
from  schools  which  either  have  a  class  to  prepare  for  church  mem- 
bership or  observe  Decision  Day  or  both.  Obviously,  the  best  re- 
sults are  attained  where  there  is  the  best  cultivation. 

Forty-four  schools  have  a  total  of  178  young  people  who  are 
attending  institutions  of  learning  above  the  high  school  grade. 
Two-thirds  of  these  are  from  Stanislaus  County.  Orange  County's 
share  of  these  is  less  than  half  the  enrollment  of  its  junior  colleges. 

77 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

The  schools  have  clearly  not  been  very  successful  in  retaining  the 
interest  of  this  age. 

There  is  too  little  social  life  reported  from  the  schools  of  these 
counties.  About  three-fourths  hold  an  annual  picnic.  A  scant  third 
have  class  socials.  Thirteen  schools  report  other  activities  which 
include  orchestras,  junior  choirs,  boys'  clubs  or  scouts,  volley  ball 
teams,  a  group  of  camp  fire  girls  and  one  summer  camp.  Com- 
mendable as  are  these  activities,  it  is  surprising  there  are  not  more 
on  the  program  when  the  consuming  interest  of  the  people  in  recrea- 
tion is  considered.  The  groups  in  the  Sunday  schools  are  not 
utilized  largely  for  social  events. 


"HONOR  KNIGHTS" 

The  boys'  Sunday  School  class  of  the  Christian  Church  at  Brea,  California 

As  to  the  other  activities,  twenty-four  schools  have  teacher- 
training  classes.  Graded  lessons  are  used  by  thirty-five.  All 
schools  are  open  the  entire  year.  Twenty-four  have  organized 
classes,  forty-seven  have  cradle  rolls  and  twenty-eight  have  home 
departments.  All  but  six  distribute  Sunday  school  papers.  Twenty- 
four  have  libraries. 


ORGANIZATIONS  IN  THE  CHURCH  OTHER  THAN   SUNDAY  SCHOOLS 

While  a  well-organized  Sunday  school  can  supply  many  of  the 
necessary  week-day  activities  of  any  church,  the  usual  tendency  is  to 
develop  many  separate  organizations.  The  ability  of  a  church  to 
reach  all  its  constituency  is  often  measured  by  the  number  of 

78 


THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

organizations  it  has  for  the  different  age  and  sex  groups.  The 
churches  of  these  counties  are  weak  in  this  particular,  except  in 
the  matter  of  women's  societies.  Orange  County  has  twice  as 
many  organizations  for  boys  and  girls  as  Stanislaus  County  but  only 
half  as  many  for  young  people.  In  this  latter  particular  the  record 
is  so  far  below  the  average  as  to  be  a  matter  of  grave  concern. 

The  situation  for  the  two  areas  is  shown  in  the  aggregate  in  the 
following  table: 

ORGANIZATIONS  IN  THE  CHURCH   OTHER  THAN   SUNDAY 

SCHOOL 

TABLE  G. 

In  churches  located  in 

r — — \i ^ 

Town  Village  Country  Entire  Area 


ik 

v    £ 

K 

£    S 

V 

W        V 

k 

w    2 

•so 

<a       u 

^       <A 

"            «0 

ta       <u 

S^                   i 

•o      3 

"°       g 

.£>        ^1 

£>      A 

2      i? 

s    s 

§      "-*. 

5     S 

s  -s 

5      5 

V    O 

S  ,_^  fc. 

**       ^ 

2         ^ 

s     ^ 

S       v 

3          ^> 

s     i^ 

3        ^> 

O'« 

2;  oO 

*«*, 

^°° 

^°^ 

fej'&O 

^^^ 

^°° 

fe;*3[ 

Men    

2 

CO 

2 

AQ 

o 

o 

oo 

Women  

2O 

ow 
8,12 

A2 

T-i? 

I008 

II 

216 

7-1 

yy 
2036 

Boys          

4 

60 

1  1  ** 

8 

87 

I 

18 

/  o 

165 

Girls            

3 

00 

4 

73 

o 

o 

7 

Both  Sexes  — 

/ 

Older    People 

.  o 

0 

o 

o 

I 

60 

I 

60 

Young  People 

.17 

609 

33 

976 

10 

450 

60 

1995 

Juniors    .  .  . 

.  o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

O 

O 

Where  membership  was  not  obtainable  with  perfect  accuracy  it 
has  been  estimated  very  conservatively.  It  is  probable  that  the 
memberships  of  the  women's  and  young  people's  societies  are  slightly 
larger  than  the  figures  given. 

The  women's  societies  are  nearly  equally  divided  between  the 
Ladies'  Aid  and  Missionary  Clubs.  The  boys'  organizations  are 
equally  divided  between  clubs  and  scout  troops,  while  the  girls'  are 
divided  between  clubs  and  Camp  Fire.  The  young  people's  socie- 
ties are,  with  three  exceptions,  entirely  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
type.  Seventeen  of  the  sixty  are  for  either  junior  or  intermediate 
ages.  Forty-two  churches  have  absolutely  no  organization  for  their 
young  people.  In  this  matter,  the  city  churches  have  by  far  the 
richer  program.  This  is  illustrated  in  Orange  County  where  out 
of  twenty-eight  city  churches,  six  have  men's  clubs  of  some  kind 
with  an  average  membership  of  nearly  forty  and  there  are  thirty- 
six  women's  organizations  with  nearly  2,300  members,  ten  boys' 

79 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

and  six  girls'  clubs,  and  thirteen  mixed  societies  for  young  people. 
Even  this  is  a  low  record  for  young  people's  organizations. 

GENERAL   CHURCH    PROGRAM 

As  would  be  expected  from  the  high  proportion  of  ministers  to 
churches,  there  is  an  abundance  of  public  services  of  worship. 
Sixty-one  churches  have  the  usual  morning  and  evening  services. 
Eighteen  other  churches  have  at  least  one  service  each  Sunday, 
though  some  of  these  are  in  the  afternoon.  Two  only  have  worship 
every  other  Sunday  while  but  one  reports  services  at  irregular  inter- 
vals. These  figures  of  course  exclude  the  inactive  churches  which 
have  services  only  when  a  Sunday  school  missionary  visits  them. 
The  record  as  it  stands  is  remarkable.  Few  rural  areas  can  boast 
that  more  than  nine-tenths  of  their  churches  are  open  every  Lord's 
Day.  Thirty  of  the  churches  join  in  union  services.  Two-thirds 
of  these  are  in  Stanislaus  County. 

The  other  activities  of  these  churches  are  few  compared  to  the 
resources  in  pastoral  leadership  and  membership.  Forty-two  unite 
in  local  charitable  work  when  it  is  necessary.  Twenty-four  have 
special  missionary  services,  support  a  worker  on  the  foreign  field 
or  contribute  in  other  ways  than  the  simple  giving  of  offerings  to 
support  the  missionary  enterprise.  Twenty  assist  in  civic  work  in 
their  neighborhoods  and  nine  of  these  are  interested  in  the  industrial 
and  agricultural  life  around  them.  Thirty  of  the  churches  con- 
tribute something  to  the  social  and  recreational  life  of  the  people, 
although  in  too  many  cases  this  contribution  is  limited  to  picnics 
and  socials.  Sixteen  have  lectures  or  study  classes.  Ten  churches 
conduct  special  activities  for  their  young  people  in  addition  to  the 
usual  young  people's  societies.  Twenty-four  churches  definitely  co- 
operate with  other  religious  bodies  and  ten  with  non-religious  bodies. 

Varied  as  is  this  program  it  includes  only  two-thirds  of  the 
churches,  which  means  that  twenty-eight  congregations  have  no 
recreational,  social,  cultural  or  educational  activities  of  any  kind. 

SEPARATE  SUNDAY  SCHOOLS 

There  are  a  number  of  separate  Sunday  schools  in  these  counties, 
eleven  or  twelve  in  all  with  a  total  enrollment  of  about  550.  Some 
of  these  are  union  schools,  others  are  assisted  by  the  Presbyterian 
missionary.  One  or  two  others  are  in  missions  of  city  churches. 
Almost  all  of  these  points  have  occasional  preaching  services  and 
one  has  a  Union  Intermediate  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor. 

80 


THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

THE    PAR   STANDARD 

It  is  possible  to  gain  a  total  impression  of  all  the  facts  that  have 
been  recorded  by  analyzing  them  according  to  a  common  standard 
which  embodies  the  best  available  consensus  of  opinion  as  to  what 
equipment  and  program  is  possible  for  the  average  town  and 
country.  Such  a  measuring  rod  is  provided  in  the  so-called  Par 
Standard  for  Country  Churches  which  was  one  of  the  develop- 
ments of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement.  This  standard  was 
worked  out  and  approved  by  the  Town  and  Country  Committee 
of  the  Home  Missions  Council  and  was  submitted  to  a  large  group 
of  the  survey  workers  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  repre- 
senting every  state  in  the  Union.  These  men  had  all  done  field 
survey  work  and  were  familiar  with  the  varying  conditions  existing 
in  America.  In  addition  to  their  investigational  experience,  they 
had  been  country  ministers  and  therefore  knew  intimately  the 
problems  of  the  rural  parish.  There  was  unanimous  agreement 
that  this  par  standard  should  be  placed  before  the  country  churches 
of  America,  not  as  an  ideal  far  beyond  their  accomplishment  but 
as  a  goal  which  a  church  might  in  all  reasonableness  expect  to 
attain.  Since  that  time,  one  denomination  and  the  home  missions 
departments  of  two  others  have  adopted  the  par  standard  with 
slight  adaptations  for  their  own  purposes. 

It  should  be  stated  that  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  com- 
parative value  to  the  points  in  this  standard.  So  far  as  the  table 
shows,  a  resident  pastor  on  full-time  counts  no  more  than  horse- 
sheds  or  parking  space.  This  is  because  the  table  was  drawn  up, 
not  for  the  purposes  of  comparative  evaluation,  but  to  suggest  mini- 
mum measurable  achievements  for  an  average  strong  country 
congregation. 

The  points  covered  in  this  standard  are  given  in  the  following 
table.  The  figures  in  parenthesis  refer  to  the  total  number  of 
churches  out  of  the  eighty-four  in  these  counties  which  qualify 
on  each  point  covered  by  the  schedules  used  in  this  survey. 

A  CHURCH  MEASURING  ROD 
TABLE  H. 


Adequate 

Physical 

Equipment 


Up-to-date  Parsonage  (56) 
Adequate  Church  Auditorium  Space  (81) 
Social  and  Recreational  Equipment  (54) 
Well-Equipped  Kitchen 
Organ  or  Piano 
Sunday  School  Room  (59) 
L  Stereopticon  or  Motion-Picture  Machine  (12) 

81 


Pastor 


Physical 
Equipment 


Finance 

Meetings 
Parish 


Religious 
Education 


Program  of 
Work 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

rResident  Pastor  (65) 

I  Full-time  Pastor  (6d) 

]  Service  Every  Sunday  (79) 

[Minimum  Salary  of  $1200  (52) 

fSanitary  Toilets 

-j  Horse-sheds  or  Parking  Space  (23) 
(.Property  in  Good  Repair  and  Condition  (72) 

("Annual  Church  Budget  Adopted  Annually  (59) 
•i  Every-member  Canvass   (52) 
[Benevolences  Equal  to  25%  Current  Expenses  (36) 

/Cooperation  with  Other  Churches  in  Community  (30) 
\Systematic  Evangelism 

Church  Serves  all  Racial  and  Occupational  Groups 

{Sunday  School  Held  Entire  Year  (79) 
Sunday  School  Enrollment  Equal  to  Church  Membership  (57) 
Attempt  to  Bring  Pupils  into  Church   (46) 
Special  Instruction  for  Church  Membership  (16) 
Teacher  Training  or  Normal  Class  (12) 
Provision  for  Leadership  Training  (8) 

[Organized  Activities  for  all  Age  and  Sex  Groups  (8) 
Cooperation  with  Boards  and  Denominational  Agencies  (50) 
-|  Program   Adopted    Annually,    25%    of    Membership    Partici- 
pating 
[Church  Reaching  Entire  Community 


An  analysis  has  been  made  of  the  twenty  churches  having  the 
highest  score.  It  shows  that  all  of  these  churches  rank  very  close 
together,  the  highest  having  twenty-two  points,  the  next  twenty 
and  the  third  nineteen.  The  remainder  have  each  from  sixteen  to 
eighteen  points.  Each  county  has  seven  churches,  which  grade  below 
ten  points.  The  scoring  of  the  city  churches  in  Orange  County 
according  to  this  same  standard  brings  practically  an  identical 
result.  The  first  ten  range  from  seventeen  to  twenty  points. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  while  town,  village  and  country 
churches  are  all  represented  in  the  twenty  leading  churches,  every- 
one of  these  churches  is  located  in  the  more  favored  agricultural 
or  oil  sections.  The  inability  of  the  church,  at  least  in  these  two 
counties,  to  rise  above  the  economic  situation  is  unfortunate  but  it 
indicates  anew  the  vital  concern  of  the  church  in  the  material 
progress  of  the  people  it  serves.  Everyone  of  the  fourteen  churches 
scoring  below  ten  points  is  located  either  in  a  less  favored  agricul- 
tural community  or  in  one  adequately  churched  without  the  addi- 
tion of  a  weak  and  struggling  organization. 

Twenty-three  points  out  of  the  thirty  on  the  standard  have  been 
scored.  Out  of  a  possible  1,012  points,  Stanislaus  County's  forty- 
four  churches  reach  a  total  score  of  593  or  58.6  per  cent.  Out 

82 


THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

of  a  possible  920  points  the  forty  churches  of  Orange  County  score 
528  or  57.4  per  cent.  A  study  of  the  table  itself  will  show  just 
what  is  the  situation  on  any  given  point  of  the  standard. 

It  is  possible  to  gain  further  insight  into  the  situation  by  analyz- 
ing the  result  by  the  outstanding  divisions  of  the  standard : 

GRADING  THE  COUNTIES 
TABLE  I. 


Division 
Physical  Equipment  

Number  of    Per  cent 
Points      Stanislaus 
7               681 

Per  cent 
Orange 

7?  Q 

Total 
7n  o 

The  Minister    

4                    76  7 

81  9 

7O  T 

Finance    

T                    =16 

608 

<&t 

Religious    Education    

6                      AS, 

41  2 

A1  2 

Service  and  Cooperation 

1                     41  7 

TC 

?o 

Total 


58.6 


574 


This  showing  seems  to  indicate  that  these  counties  while  making 
a  better  record  than  the  average,  are  not  utilizing  to  the  full  their 
assets  in  equipment,  resources  and  pastoral  leadership. 


COMMUNITY   CHURCH,   PLACENTIA,  ORANGE  COUNTY 
This  church  is  the  center  of  an  admirable  work  carried  on  by  the  Presbyterians 

There  are  two  churches  which  are  doing  a  work  worthy  of  note. 
They  are  selected  for  mention  not  as  the  best, — for  as  a  matter  of 
fact  one  has  an  equipment  which  is  very  inadequate, — but  because 
the  work  which  they  have  done  is  within  the  range  of  every  one 

83 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

of  the  average  churches  in  these  counties.  One  of  these  scores 
twenty  points  and  the  other  seventeen  with  two  more  points  soon 
to  be  added.  The  first  is  located  in  a  community  whose  basic 
economic  asset  is  oil.  It  has  an  up-to-date  parsonage  and  a  resident 
pastor  on  full  time,  an  efficient  financial  system,  a  stereopticon,  a 
cordial  spirit  of  cooperation  with  other  churches  in  the  community, 
and  a  teacher  and  leadership  training  class.  Its  distinctive  work, 
however,  is  in  connection  with  the  young  people  of  whom  its  mem- 
bership lists  a  considerable  number.  It  has  several  young  people's 
organizations,  which  include,  besides  the  senior  society  of  Christian 
Endeavor,  an  intermediate  organization  with  fifty  members,  two 


BUILT  BY  A   BIBLE  CLASS 

The  "Honor  Knights"  of  the  Christian  Church,   at  Brea,  Orange  County,  built  this  cabin 
for   themselves   in    1921.      The   boys  are   all   of   the   "teen"   ages 

junior  societies  with  a  membership  of  fifty-four  and  class  organiza- 
tions in  the  Sunday  school.  To  aid  its  program  this  church  has 
erected  a  small  building  or  cabin  which  can  be  used  as  a  "hut." 
Foundation,  floor  and  chinking  are  of  cement.  The  roof  is  of  old- 
fashioned  split  shakes.  Chimney  and  fireplace  are  of  cobblestone. 
Bookcases  and  desk  are  built  in  on  either  side  of  the  fireplace.  The 
cabin  is  sixteen  by  twenty-four,  well  lighted  and  cheery.  Outside, 
a  basketball  court  flooded  with  electric  light  enables  boys  (and 
girls  too)  to  play  at  night.  The  cabin  and  court  are  a  rendezvous 
for  the  boys.  Here  they  read,  study  their  lessons,  hold  conferences, 
entertain  in  social  ways,  play  and  enjoy  themselves  together  under 

84 


THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

the  supervision  of  the  church  leaders.     Boy  Scouts  use  the  cabin 
one  night  a  week. 

This  work  is  thoroughly  geared  into  the  program  of  the  church 
and  the  pastor  reports  no  difficulty  in  handling  the  moral  situation 
and  no  fear  of  any  competition  from  dance  halls. 

The  other  church  is  located  in  one  of  the  richest  citrus-growing 
sections  of  the  county,  which  has,  however,  now  been  invaded  by 
the  oil  industry.  According  to  the  pastor,  the  church  does  little, 
but  its  influence  and  the  leadership  of  its  minister  and  those  who 
cooperate  with  him  have  certainly  been  responsible  for  a  very 
unusual  piece  of  work.  With  two  exceptions  relating  to  adminis- 
tration which  will  soon  be  changed,  this  church  has  all  the  assets 
of  the  first  church  mentioned  and  in  addition  has  a  better  building. 
Not  only  are  the  boys,  girls  and  young  people  organized  but  the 
church  is  influential  in  the  community  through  the  medium  of  its 
pastor  who  is  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce.  Health 
clinics  are  held  in  the  church  and  are  conducted  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  examine  not  only  into  the  physical  and  mental  but  also  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  child.  The  contact  with  the  mothers  in 
discussing  their  offspring  is  tremendously  valuable,  not  only  to  them 
but  to  the  church.  This  health  work  is  not  limited  to  infants  but 
takes  in  older  children.  This  church  has  through  its  ability  to  turn 
to  the  proper  county  and  state  officials  utilized  public  agencies  for 
materially  improving  the  health  and  housing  situation  in  the  com- 
munity, which  formerly  was  absolutely  dangerous  and  still  is  far 
from  what  it  ought  to  be.  Through  the  influence  of  the  minister, 
also  a  Community  Council  has  been  formed  so  that  there  is  no 
overlapping  of  the  several  local  agencies.  This  Council  constitutes 
the  machinery  for  meeting  any  social  need  that  arises  and  for 
assigning  to  every  one  of  the  six  or  eight  cooperating  agencies  its 
proper  portion  of  any  task. 


85 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  JAPANESE  PROBLEM 

THE  Japanese  represent  only  about  2  per  cent  of  the  total 
population  of  California.  Numerically  they  are  a  compara- 
tively negligible  group.  In  the  whole  State  they  control  by 
ownership  or  lease  only  about  half  a  million  acres  or  a  little  more 
than  the  total  area  of  Orange  County.1  They  operate  between  one- 
tenth  and  one-seventh  of  all  the  irrigated  land.  This  situation 
is  due  to  the  effort  of  the  State  to  prevent  further  immigration  from 
Japan  and  to  hamper  the  economic  progress  of  the  Japanese  who 
have  already  come.  It  is  this  very  effort  that  has  led  to  some  of  the 
happenings  that  today  are  cited  as  showing  the  danger  of  Japanese 
land-holding.  Many  Farm  Bureaus  and  Chambers  of  Commerce  in 
Orange,  Stanislaus  and  other  counties  have  passed  resolutions  of 
which  the  following  is  typical :  "The  Orange  County  Farm  Bureau 
declares  the  Japanese  to  be  an  unassimilable  element  in  the  popula- 
tion and  advocates  the  cancellation  of  the  gentlemen's  agreement, 
exclusion  of  picture  brides,  rigorous  exclusion  of  Japanese  immi- 
grants and  the  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution  to  provide 
that  no  child  born  in  the  United  States  of  foreign  parentage  shall 
be  considered  an  American  citizen  unless  both  parents  are  of  a 
race  that  is  eligible  to  citizenship."  Is  it  not  surprising  to  find  that 
few  Japanese  affiliate  with  these  organizations.  They  have  their 
own  local  associations,  fifty-five  in  all  the  State,  which  are  con- 
stituent members  of  the  Japanese  Agricultural  Association.  This 
body  is  connected  with  the  Japanese  Association  of  America  in 
California,  which  raises  from  dues  and  spends  for  the  advancement 
of  the  educational,  agricultural  and  financial  interests  of  the  Jap- 
anese, about  $135,000  a  year. 

In  1918  the  Japanese  Agricultural  Association  stated  that  5,800 
farms  in  California  were  operated  by  Japanese  and  that  apart  from 
the  7,000  persons  thus  engaged  in  agricultural  enterprises,  there 

1  It  is  recognized  that  the  facts  on  the  total  situation  are  debatable.  For 
a  statement  of  all  sides  the  reader  is  referred  to  The  Annals  of  the  Academy 
of  Political  Science,  Jan.,  1921.  The  facts  here  given  have  been  submitted  to 
authorities  within  and  without  California.  They  have  been  taken  largely 
from  Governor  Stephen's  letter.  (See  bibliography.)  The  authors  are  re- 
sponsible, however,  only  for  the  data  concerning  the  counties  studied. 

86 


THE  JAPANESE  PROBLEM 

were  11,000  farm  laborers.  The  Association  estimated  the  total 
wealth  of  the  rural  Japanese  to  be  $25,000,000  and  the  value  of 
their  annual  products  to  range  between  $65,000,000  and  $70,000,000 
of  which  35  per  cent  was  turned  back  to  white  land  owners  as  rent. 
Forty-five  per  cent  went  to  labor.  Chief  among  these  products  were 
berries,  onions,  celery,  rice  and  green  vegetables,  sugar  beets  and 
cantaloupes.  It  is  certain  that  any  sudden  removal  of  the  Japanese 
from  their  present  agricultural  pursuits  in  California  would  seri- 
ously affect  the  food  supply  of  the  entire  State.  From  a  farm  labor 
point  of  view  the  Japanese,  being  a  race  of  short  people,  seem 
willing  to  engage  in  those  lines  of  agricultural  work  which  call  for 
"squat"  or  "stoop  and  pick"  labor,  and  they  have  entered  fields  of 
farming  largely  shunned  by  white  farmers.  Others  say  they  have 
monopolized  these  fields. 

Taken  together,  the  two  counties  illustrate  very  well  the  rural 
aspects  of  the  Japanese  problem.  In  Orange  County  this  race  has 
increased  with  great  rapidity  in  the  last  twenty  years.  But  three 
were  reported  in  the  census  of  1900.  Ten  years  later  the  number 
had  risen  to  641  and  today  there  are  1,491.  The  proportion  of 
Japanese  to  the  total  population  in  this  county  is  double  in  the 
ratio  for  the  State  as  a  whole.  Only  169  of  the  Japanese  lease 
farms.  The  County  Farm  Bureau  has,  however,  taken  an  official 
stand  for  the  limitation  both  of  the  number  of  Japanese  and  of  their 
privileges.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Japanese  are  desired  as  farm 
laborers  because  they  are  quiet,  peaceful,  steady  and  rapid.  If 
they  could  be  kept  in  the  farm  labor  class  California  would  be 
satisfied.  The  difficulty  is  that  because  of  their  thriftiness  and 
their  slightly  lower  standard  of  living  they  soon  become  economi- 
cally independent,  and  acquire  and  operate  their  own  land.  The 
situation  is,  however,  not  acute  in  Orange  County  despite  the  in- 
crease in  population,  because  the  Japanese  devote  themselves  to 
types  of  agriculture  in  which  they  do  not  enter  into  active  com- 
petition with  the  whites  to  any  appreciable  degree.  So  quiet  and 
industrious  are  they  that  a  superficial  observer  would  not  realize 
that  there  are  as  many  Orientals  in  the  county  as  there  are.  The 
social  workers  of  the  county  are  unanimous  in  their  testimony  that 
the  Japanese  is  socially  a  desirable  citizen.  It  is  exceptional  indeed 
for  any  of  these  workers  to  have  to  deal  in  a  corrective  or  legal 
way  with  Japanese. 

Stanislaus  County  presents  a  different  situation.  Here  the 
Japanese  are  numerically  an  inconsiderable  group,  numbering  only 
a  little  more  than  500,  but  they  compete  with  both  the  American 

87 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

farm  operator  and  with  the  farm  laborer.  While  the  survey  of  the 
county  was  in  process  the  so-called  Turlock  deportations  took  place. 
Masked  men  visited  the  lodging  houses  of  the  Japanese,  ordered 
them  to  pack,  placed  them  on  a  truck,  drove  them  to  Keyes,  a  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Ceres  community,  and  placed  them  on  a  passing 
train  with  orders  not  to  return.  In  this  way  from  eighty  to  a 
hundred  melon  pickers  were  deported  at  the  height  of  the  season. 
At  some  points  signs  reading,  "No  Japanese  wanted"  could  be  seen. 
Incidents  of  this  sort  are  symptomatic  of  the  entire  situation. 

The  problem  is  not  racial  in  the  sense  in  which  that  term  is 
generally  used.     It  is  economic.     The  Turlock  deportation  incident 


A    JAPANESE   SCHOOL   IN   ORANGE   COUNTY 

is  a  case  in  point.  An  outsider,  knowing  of  such  resolutions  as 
have  been  quoted,  would  have  been  amazed  at  the  vehemence  with 
which  the  action  of  the  mob  was  denounced  by  some  business  men 
and  employers.  Their  attitude  was  taken  because  the  Japanese 
came  into  the  Turlock  district  and  offered  to  pick  melons  for  25 
per  cent  less  than  the  rate  paid  to  organized  white  labor.  The 
deportation  was  engineered  by  those  who  suffered  from  this  under- 
cutting of  their  wage.  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  Japanese  has 
accumulated  sufficient  capital  to  lease  a  ranch  of  his  own,  and  settles 
down  to  compete  with  white  operators,  the  anti-Japanese  cry  is 
raised  from  another  quarter.  The  white  farm  laborer  does  not, 
however,  object  to  working  for  a  Japanese  boss.  In  fact,  there  are 
more  white  laborers  working  for  Oriental  farmers  than  there  are 
Oriental  laborers  working  for  American  farmers. 


THE  JAPANESE  PROBLEM 

It  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  the  issue  is  primarily  an  economic 
one.  The  white  farm  laborer  will  not  stand  with  the  white  farm 
operator  against  the  Japanese  when  it  is  to  his  advantage  not  to  do 
so.  Nor  will  the  white  farmer  employ  white  labor  if  he  can  secure 
Japanese  labor  at  a  lower  rate.  Both  classes,  however,  white 
farmer  and  white  laborer,  for  good  reasons  dread  direct  competition 
with  the  Japanese.  This  does  not  make  the  problem  any  easier  of 
solution.  In  some  ways  it  renders  it  more  difficult.  It  is  not  for 
this  book  to  attempt  a  full  discussion  of  this  complicated  problem. 
The  present  concern  is  simply  with  the  religious  implications  of 
this  situation.  From  that  point  of  view  the  facts  themselves  are 
clear  enough.  Since  California  cannot  immediately  do  without  the 
Japanese,  it  is  for  California  to  make  room  for  them  in  her  social 
and  economic  fabric  and  to  treat  them  with  the  Christian  considera- 
tion any  race  has  a  right  to  expect  from  America.  Concretely,  this 
is  the  problem  of  Stanislaus  County,  for  five  or  six  hundred 
Japanese  form  part  of  its  population,  and  make  their  contribution 
to  its  total  wealth. 

How  this  problem  in  applied  Christianity  may  be  solved  is 
shown,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  community  of  Livingston,  Cali- 
fornia, in  Merced  County.  This  is  just  over  the  line  from  Stanis- 
laus County  but  is  included  in  the  work  of  its  County  Sunday 
School  Association.  There  is  a  Japanese  colony  here  of  some 
years  standing  with  a  total  population  of  258.  The  Japanese  con- 
trol 2,325  acres  which  are  distributed  among  forty  owners.  The 
average  productive  acreage  per  farm  is  forty.  Their  chief  products 
are  raisins,  dry  peaches,  table  grapes  and  fruit  for  canning. 

Of  the  population  sixty  adult  men,  forty-three  women  and 
ninety-four  children  are  classed  as  permanent.  Sixty-one  adults, 
fifty-nine  of  them  men,  are  temporary  residents  employed  as 
laborers.  There  is  an  interdenominational  church,  established  four 
years  ago,  with  a  membership  of  seventy-seven  and  an  average 
attendance  of  seventy-five.  There  is  a  Japanese  pastor  with  an 
assistant.  The  total  budget  for  the  last  year  was  over  $2,000. 
The  church  has  been  entirely  independent  financially  ever  since  its 
organization. 

There  are  forty  little  children  in  the  Sunday  school.  The 
younger  children  who  cannot  understand  English  are  taught  by 
Japanese  teachers,  and  the  older  ones  who  understand  English  are 
taught  by  an  American  teacher.  All  of  the  scout  age  children, 
about  thirty  in  all,  attend  Sunday  school  at  the  American  church 
in  town,  in  order  that  they  may  associate  with  the  American  children 

89 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

and  with  the  American  Christian  community.  Ninety-eight  per 
cent  of  the  children  of  the  Japanese  colony  attend  Sunday  school, 
either  at  the  Japanese  or  the  American  churches. 

There  is  a  kindergarten  attached  to  the  church,  which  aims  to 
help  the  children  to  learn  English  so  that  they  may  enter  the  grade 
school  and  do  the  same  work  as  the  American  children  and  also 
to  train  them  spiritually  and  morally  in  the  principles  of  good 
citizenship.  Twelve  children  are  enrolled  in  this  kindergarten  and 
the  expenses  including  salary  are  $1,100. 

A  night  school  has  been  organized  among  the  adults  and  about 
twenty-eight  are  studying  English  twice  a  week  under  one  Japanese 
and  two  American  teachers.  The  Japanese  feel  the  necessity  of 
knowing  English  both  for  business  reasons  and  because  they  are 
meeting  the  same  problem  that  confronts  other  immigrants  when 
the  children  become  Americanized  and  learn  to  cooperate  with 
American  institutions  which  the  parents  do  not  understand.  The 
Japanese  Christian  young  people  in  the  community  are  organized 
into  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  which  also  helps  in 
the  Americanization  and  church  work. 

The  white  people  living  in  the  town  also  have  a  church  with  a 
resident  pastor.  It  is  Methodist  Episcopal  in  affiliation  and  organ- 
ization but  the  people  of  all  denominations  attend.  The  program  is 
broad,  including  worship,  evangelism,  religious  education  and  com- 
munity service.  The  pastor  expects  that  when  the  Japanese  chil- 
dren are  old  enough  and  when  the  Japanese  adults  understand 
English  the  two  churches  will  be  consolidated.  The  Japanese  com- 
prise about  one-half  the  population.  The  American  leaders  testify 
that  they  are  clean,  intelligent,  thoroughly  honest  and  easy  to  work 
with.  Livingston  is  an  example  of  how  the  Japanese  problem  in 
California  can  be  solved. 

Orange  County  needs  a  Livingston,  several  in  fact,  for  while 
there  are  a  few  special  schools  for  Japanese  in  the  county  there  is 
nothing  from  a  religious  point  of  view  which  corresponds  to  the 
work  at  Livingston.  The  Protestant  churches  are  doing  a  little 
work  among  them  at  three  points,  but  it  is  very  little  indeed,  and  it 
is  not  fair  to  measure  it  by  the  same  statistical  standard  as  that 
employed  in  the  study  of  other  churches.  The  three  churches  are 
under  a  Japanese  pastor  and  have  a  membership  of  about  fifty. 
There  are  two  Sunday  schools  with  forty-eight  members.  One  of 
these  churches  is  located  at  Santa  Ana.  The  growing  Japanese 
group,  now  approaching  2,000,  is  largely  located  in  a  comparatively 

90 


THE  JAPANESE  PROBLEM 

small  area  between  Santa  Ana  and  the  coast.     Any  such  group  in  a 
city  would  receive  considerable  attention. 

For  several  years  the  Committee  on  Orientals  of  the  Home  Mis- 
sion Council  has  called  attention  to  the  serious  overlapping  of  de- 
nominational efforts  in  this  field,  especially  in  Los  Angeles  and 
San  Francisco.  The  Oriental  community  in  the  latter  city  "has 
received  a  larger  amount  of  missionary  money  than  any  similar  spot 
on  the  globe."  Such  competition,  never  justifiable,  is  especially 
unfortunate  in  the  field  of  Oriental  missions.  Whatever  its  reac- 
tion in  the  field  on  which  the  money  is  being  spent,  such  competi- 
tion always  results  in  neglect  elsewhere,  as  witness  the  situation  in 
Orange  County.  A  tithe  of  the  money  now  allotted  to  Los  Angeles 
or  San  Francisco,  if  spent  in  Orange  County  under  proper  leader- 
ship and  direction,  would  so  strengthen  the  present  work  as  to  make 
possible  a  rural  demonstration  in  Japanese  missionary  endeavor 
which  would  be  of  great  value  to  the  local  field  and  to  the  larger 
cause. 


91 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION  AMONG 
OTHER  FOREIGN-BORN  GROUPS 

IN  Stanislaus  County  more  than  one-third  of  the  total  population 
is  foreign-born.  The  proportion  among  the  farm  owners  and 
the  farm  tenants  is  about  the  same.  In  Orange  County  the 
foreign-born  are  but  fourteen  per  cent  and  the  only  large  group  is 
the  Mexican. 

California  has  been  a  Mecca  for  farmers  of  all  races  and  the 
foreigners  especially  have  been  victimized  in  land  transactions.  Poor 
soil  was  sold  to  unsuspecting  buyers,  the  price  all  the  higher  because 
of  the  large  commissions.  The  counties  covered  in  this  investiga- 
tion escaped  most  of  these  abuses.  Stanislaus  County  was  opened 
largely  after  the  passage  of  the  Wright  Law.  California  now  has 
a  Commission  on  Immigration  and  Housing.  In  cooperation  with 
the  agricultural  department  of  the  state  university,  it  gives  general 
information  regarding  land,  and  if  the  prospective  settler  will  give 
sufficient  particulars  this  agency  will  investigate  any  particular  tract 
and  make  a  free  report  on  its  agricultural  possibilities,  accessibility 
of  markets  and  the  wisdom  of  buying  the  land.  This  service,  open 
to  all  alike,  is  particularly  helpful  to  the  settler  from  a  foreign  land. 

What  is  the  effect  of  this  situation  so  unusual  in  our  rural  life  ? 
The  question  can  best  be  answered  from  the  data  on  Stanislaus 
County.  The  most  significant  surface  fact  patent  to  an  observer 
is  that  the  New  Americans  live  in  its  most  prosperous  parts.  They 
have  not,  apparently,  hampered  progress  in  the  matter  of  good  roads 
and  schools.  This  conclusion  is  confirmed  by  those  who  know  the 
county  best.  These  people,  with  the  initiative  to  come  more  than 
6,000  miles  from  their  native  lands,  are  not  the  kind  to  balk  at  any- 
thing that  will  benefit  the  land  of  their  adoption  and  their  own 
situation  within  it. 

The  most  numerous  group  is  Scandinavian,  located  chiefly  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  county  and  centering  in  Turlock.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  membership  and  per  capita  giving,  the  Swedish 
churches  are,  as  indicated  elsewhere,  among  the  strongest  in  the 
county.  Although  clannish  and  in  local  community  affairs  a  little 

92 


OTHER  FOREIGN-BORN  GROUPS 

suspicious,  the  Scandinavians  represent  that  northern  European 
immigration  which  is  assimilated  into  the  social  fabric  of  an  Ameri- 
can community  without  serious  difficulty.  About  one-half  of  them 
are  farmers,  a  very  large  proportion  of  whom  own  their  land. 
Many  of  their  churches  conduct  services  in  the  native  tongue 
though  only  one  such  church  has  a  full-term  day  school,  and  the 
children  are  thoroughly  American.  The  Scandinavians  are  a  steady, 
reliable,  important  element  in  the  population  of  the  county. 

The  second  largest  group  in  Stanislaus  County  is  the  Portu- 
guese, and  they  represent  the  bulk  of  the  southern  European  immi- 
gration. Many  of  them  came,  however,  from  Hawaii.  There  is 
little  or  no  prejudice  against  them.  For  the  most  part,  they  are 
farm  tenants,  but  the  more  prosperous  are  rapidly  acquiring  titles 
to  their  land.  They  are  a  tireless  people  and  willing  to  work  longer 
and  more  days  than  are  the  American  farmers.  For  this  reason 
they  are  gradually  taking  over  the  dairying  industry  in  certain 
sections  of  the  county,  since  they  do  not  mind  the  long  hours  and 
the  seven-day  toil  which  this  type  of  farming  entails.  The  Portu- 
guese have  come  in  such  numbers  as  to  present  a  real  problem. 
Their  standard  of  living  is  lower  than  the  American,  and  where 
they  have  supplanted  the  native  born,  communities  are  changing  in 
character  and  American  institutions  are  languishing.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  in  Newman,  and,  to  some  extent,  in  Patterson,  Hughson 
and  Crows  Landing.  From  these  centers  the  Portuguese  are  gradu- 
ally spreading  all  over  the  county.  They  move  faster  than  their 
own  church  can  move,  and  consequently  there  are  some  localities' 
where  no  religious  work  at  all  is  carried  on  for  them — Catholic  or 
Protestant.  Three  or  four  of  the  evangelical  churches  have  made 
a  start  at  ministering  to  them,  the  Daily  Vacation  Bible  School  at 
Crows  Landing  enrolling  about  50  per  cent  Portuguese  children. 
Twenty-four  church  members  and  fifty  odd  Sunday  school  scholars 
represent  the  total  impact  of  the  Church  thus  far  on  this  southern 
European  immigration. 

It  remained  for  one  young  woman  who  saw  the  need  and  fol- 
lowed her  vision  to  show  the  way  to  reach  them.  Giving  up  her 
position,  she  began  by  herself  and  at  her  own  expense  carried  on 
a  work  which  has  become  a  noteworthy  demonstration  in  Ameri- 
canization, not  only  for  the  county  but  also  for  other  sections  of 
the  state  and  country.  Commenced  in  her  own  home  town  of 
Hughson,  her  work  has  now  been  put  under  the  auspices  of  the 
local  high  school  and  has  spread  to  Crows  Landing  and  Newman, 
where  night  classes  are  carried  on.  The  Hughson  program  is 

93 


OLD — 

The  village  slum  and  the  al  fresco   slum,   the   Mexican   occupants  of  which   nevertheless 

"drive  their  own  car" 

94 


AND   NEW 


Above:  Farm  laborers'  houses  built  by  an  enlightened  land-owner  for  his  Mexican 
workers  to  take  the  place  of  the  slums  depicted  on  the  opposite  page.  Below:  A  scene 
at  Wintersburg  showing  how  an  American-born  racial  pastor  takes  the  pulpit  to  the  pool 
room  and  competes  successfully  for  the  attention  of  the  Mexican  habitues 


95 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

varied.  It  follows  mainly  the  line  of  speaking,  reading  and  writing 
the  English  language  with  courses  in  the  constitutional  history  of  the 
state  and  nation  for  scholars  more  advanced.  The  work  is  carried 
on  in  both  home  and  school.  Best  of  all,  it  is  not  confined  to  these 
two  places  if  a  need  arises  for  its  being  carried  outside.  The  per- 
sonal touch  is  not  lacking,  and  with  true  Christian  neighborliness 
the  director  assists  in  cases  of  illness  and  in  matters  of  business  and 
litigation.  The  work  is  now  supported  by  local  and  county  officials. 
But  it  is  due  to  the  courage  of  Miss  Bernice  Wood  and  to  her  per- 
sistence in  keeping  at  the  task  in  its  initial  stage  that  the  work  has 
survived  and  is  now  growing.  Much  remains  to  be  done.  In  the 
last  dozen  years  only, 347  persons  have  been  naturalized  in  Stanis- 
laus County,  an  average  of  twenty-nine  a  year.  The  highest  number 
ever  recorded  for  a  single  year  was  forty-eight  in  1921.  These 
figures  include  both  the  northern  and  southern  immigration. 

California  has  a  law  which  permits  Board  of  school  trustees 
of  any  school  district  or  city  boards  of  education  to  employ  teachers 
to  be  known  as  ''home  teachers,"  not  exceeding  one  such  home 
teacher  for  every  500  units  of  average  daily  attendance  in  the  com- 
mon schools  of  the  district,  as  shown  by  the  report  of  the  county 
superintendent  of  schools  for  the  preceding  school  year.  These 
home  teachers  are  to  work  in  the  homes  of  the  pupils,  instructing 
children  and  adults  in  matters  relating  to  school  attendance,  in  sani- 
tation, the  English  language,  household  duties, — such  as  purchase, 
preparation,  and  use  of  food,  clothing,  and  in  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  American  system  of  government  and  the  rights  and 
duties  of  citizenship.  The  provision  limiting  the  service  to  one 
teacher  for  every  500  units  of  grade  school  attendance  prevents  it 
from  being  of  value  to  most  rural  communities.  It  should  be  ex- 
tended to  meet  such  needs  as  are  evident  in  Stanislaus  County. 

In  Orange  County  the  Mexican  is  the  greatest  problem  in  many 
ways.  To  the  county  probation  officer,  he  presents  a  most  difficult 
problem.  Emotional,  stubborn,  often  illiterate  and  handicapped  by 
generations  of  inefficient  living,  the  Mexican  is  difficult  to  handle 
and  hard  to  teach.  The  county  has  separate  schools  for  Mexican 
children  up  to,  and  including,  the  sixth  grade,  largely  for  the  reason 
that  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  deal  with  the  Mexican  along 
with  the  American  educationally  and  be  fair  to  both  races. 

How  important  the  problem  is,  the  last  census  revealed.  It 
showed  that  there  were  more  people  of  Mexican  or  Spanish  origin 
than  any  other  foreign-born  group  in  California.  They  constitute 
35  per  cent  of  all  the  foreigners  in  the  state.  Orange  County  has, 

96 


OTHER  FOREIGN-BORN  GROUPS 

therefore,  more  than  the  average  proportionate  number,  since  Mexi- 
cans constitute  42  per  cent  of  the  total  of  the  foreign-born  popula- 
tion. They  are  scattered  all  through  the  county,  especially  in  the 
cities,  and  seven  communities  may  be  classed  as  almost  entirely 
Mexican. 

Even  in  the  more  rural  communities,  the  Mexican  is  inclined 
to  live  in  the  village  rather  than  in  the  country.  For  those  who  can 
read,  there  are  several  Spanish  newspapers  circulating  in  the  county. 
The  Mexicans  have  little  constructive  social  opportunity,  but  the 
pool  room  and  dance  hall  attract  them.  The  schools  are  perhaps 


£.  .' 


MEXICAN    METHODISTS 


The  congregation  of  the  A.   Y.   Kittle   Memorial   Bungalow   Church  grouped   in   front  of 
their  church  home  at  Anaheim 

the  greatest  influence  for  progress  among  them,  but  it  is  difficult 
to  lift  their  general  level.  This  will  take  long  years.  Almost  all  the 
cases  of  rape  within  the  county  are  reported  from  the  Mexican  ele- 
ment. There  are,  however,  signs  that  the  moral  situation  is  im- 
proving. Housing  conditions  are  not  good,  although  they  show 
progress.  The  Mexican  is  quite  content  to  live  in  a  shack  or  tent 
and  most  frequently  lives  thus.  Modern  sanitary  standards  are 
hard  to  maintain,  although  good  work  has  been  done  in  some  com- 
munities such  as  Placentia,  and  some  employers  of  Mexican  labor 
have  helped  the  situation  by  erecting  attractive  houses  which  they 
may  rent. 

97 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

The  Mexican  problem  is  complicated  by  the  shifting  population. 
Many  of  them  are  migrant  workers,  although  they  may  not  travel 
far  from  the  county  and  may  return  to  it  when  it  reaches  the  peak 
of  its  demand  for  extra  labor.  In  only  one  of  the  communities, 
however,  are  more  than  one-fifth  of  the  Mexicans  reported  to  have 
lived  there  for  as  long  as  five  years.  They  are  working  in  the  oil 
fields  to  some  extent,  on  the  citrus  ranches  and  in  the  sugar  beet 
section. 

Nominally,  the  Mexican  is  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  this  church 
reaches  by  no  means  all  of  them.  The  total  membership  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  slightly  less  than  the  total  number  of 
Mexicans  in  the  county,  and  includes  many  Americans. 

The  evangelical  work  among  this  race  is  largely  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  denomination  which  maintains 
four  circuits  with  a  total  of  eleven  points.  Only  three  of  these 
points  possess  church  buildings,  eight  using  either  churches  of  other 
denominations  as  at  Placentia  or  public  halls.  The  total  church 
membership  is  216,  with  seventy-seven  others  in  the  preparatory 
membership  class,  a  total  of  293.  This  total  does  not  include  bap- 
tized children  or  adherents.  The  nine  Sunday  schools  in  connection 
with  these  churches  have  a  total  enrollment  of  281.  This  work  is 
financed  largely  through  home  mission  appropriations  and  it  would, 
of  course,  be  impossible  to  carry  it  on  in  any  other  way  at  the 
present  time.  Members  did,  however,  contribute  during  the  last 
fiscal  year  a  total  of  $688,  of  which  $454  was  for  benevolent  pur- 
poses. On  the  basis  of  the  full  active  membership,  this  represents 
a  contribution  of  $3.13  per  capita.  The  program  of  church  work 
consists  not  only  in  worship  and  religious  education,  but  also  in 
community  service.  Certain  of  the  churches  among  the  Mexicans 
have  classes  in  English,  music  and  sewing,  and  conduct  clubs 
through  which  social  and  recreational  work  is  done.  Substantial 
results  are  being  achieved  in  individual  lives,  and  more  slowly  in 
social  standards.  Five  sons  of  one  Mexican  have  become  Sunday 
school  superintendents.  The  children  of  another  evangelical  Mexi- 
can home  have  become  life  work  recruits. 


98 


CHAPTER  XI 
OTHER  RELIGIOUS  WORK 

OTHER  religious  work  in  the  two  counties  divides  itself,  at 
least  outside  of  the  four  cities,  into  three  classes:  Roman 
Catholic,  Christian  Science  and  nondescript.  The  last-named 
group  is  strongest  in  Turlock.  This  town  has  more  churches 
than  many  whole  counties,  though  less  than  half  belong  to  recog- 
nized evangelical  bodies.  No  one  knows  just  how  many  churches 
Turlock  has.  They  multiply  like  the  amoeba.  At  the  time  the 
survey  was  in  process  one  such  church,  itself  born  of  dissension, 
was  in  the  throes  of  dividing  again.  Three  instead  of  one  was 
thus  the  outcome  of  the  efforts  of  one  cult,  the  Russellites.  The 
Home  of  Truth,  The  Church  of  Christ  Loyal  and  a  number  of  others 
make  up  Turlock's  allotment  of  religious  organizations,  with  a  total 
of  twenty-five  in  all. 

The  leader  of  one  of  these  sects  claimed  to  have  converted 
"thousands  of  Mexicans"  when  a  missionary  in  Mexico.  He  at- 
tributed his  success,  despite  his  inability  to  speak  Spanish,  to  "the 
gift  of  tongues."  The  evangelical  denominations  can  hardly  stoop 
to  own  such  work.  Ignorance  and  credulity,  emotionalism  and 
superstition  are  its  tools  and  assets. 

There  are  four  Christian  Science  churches,  two  in  each  county 
with  a  combined  membership  of  approximately  one  hundred. 

The  Roman  Catholic  work  is  strong,  especially  in  the  cities. 
In  Anaheim,  for  instance,  this  church  has  an  elaborate  equipment, 
including  a  school  and  orphanage.  In  all  there  are  eight  churches 
and  nine  missions  served  by  thirteen  priests.  There  are  two  schools, 
both  in  Orange  County,  with  sixteen  sisters  in  charge  and  320  pupils. 
The  orphanage  alluded  to  has  150  boys  and  a  staff  of  twenty-three 
sisters.  All  these  figures  include  the  cities.  The  total  membership 
of  the  town  and  country  churches  is  hard  to  determine.  It  is 
doubtful  if  the  Catholic  churches  themselves  have  thoroughly  accu- 
rate records.  Many  of  their  people  are  on  the  move  about  the 
country  or  along  the  whole  coast.  One  priest  stated  that  his  mem- 
bership included  "200  Americans  and  the  Lord  only  knows  how 
many  Mexicans."  These  churches  vary  in  character  from  that  at' 

99 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

Newman,  with  about  500  members,  to  the  little  chapel  at  La  Grange 
where  services  are  held  at  irregular  intervals  averaging  once  or 
twice  a  month.  The  total  membership  for  the  town  and  country 
churches  of  the  two  counties  is  approximately  7,700. 


THE  OLDEST  BUILDING  IN  CALIFORNIA 
San  Juan  Capistrano,   Catholic   Mission 

The  Catholic  Church  has,  at  San  Juan  Capistrano,  one  of  the 
oldest  historical  sites  in  the  southern  part  of  California.  Here 
the  Franciscan  Brotherhood  began  work  in  the  early  days  of  No- 
vember, 1776.  A  great  church  was  erected,  the  construction  of 
which  was  begun  early  in  1797.  Nine  years  of  constant  toil  on 
the  part  of  unskilled  workmen  were  required  to  lay  the  sun-dried 
bricks  and  complete  the  work.  It  was  planned  to  make  the  dedi- 
cation a  great  event,  and  runners  were  dispatched  throughout  the 
neighborhood  and  to  far-away  regions  to  invite  the  people  to  the 
ceremony.  It  is  said  that  10,000  Indians  gathered  for  the  occasion, 
but,  during  the  week  of  the  festivities,  the  great  dome  surrounding 
the  vestry  and  cloisters  fell  with  a  crash.  The  mission  has  never 
been  restored,  though  some  of  it  is  still  standing  and  services  are 
held  in  a  chapel.  Many  legends  cluster  about  the  place,  which  is 
visited  by  hundreds  of  tourists  during  the  course  of  the  year. 


100 


CHAPTER  XII 


NO  one  can  study  the  social  and  religious  life  of  these  counties 
without   receiving  a   number    of   very   definite   impressions. 
The  data  here  presented  are  open  to  interpretation  by  all 
those  who  have  to  do  with  the  counties  or  who  read  what  has  been 
set  down.     In  this  chapter  the  surveyors  give  simply  their  own  con- 
clusions and  impressions.     They  do  not  have  the  task  of  executing 
any  program.     That  is  for  the  local  people  through  their  churches 
and  social  agencies,  acting  in  cooperation  with  their  state  officers. 
It  is  hoped,  however,  that  this  chapter  may  prove  suggestive  par- 
ticularly to  the  local  leaders. 

I.    ASSETS 

Foremost  among  the  impressions  that  one  gathers  is  the  sense  of 
the  self-sufficiency  of  these  counties.  They  have  enormous  assets. 
Their  products  stamp  them  as  the  most  prosperous  of  our  rural 
counties.  The  soil  is  fertile  and  aided  by  irrigation.  The  climate 
gives  both  health  and  wealth.  Roads  and  transportation  facilities 
are  excellent.  Farms  are  operated  largely  by  owners  and  economic 
cooperation  is  far  advanced,  especially  in  Orange  County. 

The  counties  are  new ;  they  are  growing,  and  while  perhaps 
social  consciousness  is  still  in  the  adolescent  stage,  it  is  unhampered 
by  century-old  traditions  and  can  blaze  its  own  way  toward  greater 
efficiency.  Schools  are  good  and  in  the  irrigated  sections  they  are 
among  the  best.  There  is  a  strong  community  spirit  in  the  great 
majority  of  places  and,  what  is  more  rare,  there  is  county  spirit. 

Church  membership  is  increasing  and  almost  half  of  the  member- 
ship is  made  up  of  men.  Per  capita  contributions,  benevolence 
offerings,  and  congregational  budgets  are  all  high.  Ministers  live 
with  their  people  to  an  exceptional  degree  and,  judged  by  prevailing 
standards,  are  fairly  well-paid.  The  churches  have  given  largely  of 
their  young  people  to  professional  Christian  service.  All  this  in  a 
country  barely  half  a  century  old  is  encouraging.  It  must  be  said, 
however,  that  there  are  also  many  social  and  religious  needs  that 
have  not  yet  been  met,  many  problems  not  yet  solved.  The  leaders 

101 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

would  probably  be  the  first  to  admit  this.  There  is  no  reason  why 
the  onward  march  should  be  stayed  because  it  has  gone  as  far  as 
it  has.  It  is  largely  with  the  progressive  solution  of  these  problems 
that  the  following  conclusions  deal. 

2.    STRONGER   ECONOMIC   AGENCIES 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  agencies  devoted  to  developing 
the  economic  prosperity  of  these  counties  have  been  successful, 
especially  in  Orange  County,  where  the  cooperative  movement  is  at 
its  best.  The  chambers  of  commerce  and  farm  bureaus  are  of  high 
grade.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  latter  organization  in  each  county 
will  soon  add  a  home  demonstration  agent  to  the  staff.  She  would 
greatly  assist  farm  women  and  would  be  a  considerable  factor  in 
Americanization  work. 

Stanislaus  County  should  learn  from  Orange  some  of  the  les- 
sons of  cooperation.  Most  of  the  products  are  still  being  marketed 
in  the  old  way  and  cooperation  would  save  the  farmers  of  the  San 
Joaquin  Valley  many  thousands  of  dollars  in  the  long  run.  It  would 
probably  also  end  the  indefensible  lack  of  cooperation  between  the 
Farmers'  Union  and  the  Farm  Bureau.  The  objectives  of  these 
two  organizations  are  basically  similar  though  methods  differ. 
Nationally  or  locally  friction  between  farmers'  organizations  weak- 
ens and  discredits  their  cause. 

3.    COUNTY   COUNCIL  OF   SOCIAL   AGENCIES 

The  unusual  number  of  county-wide  agencies  of  public  and 
private  character  which  these  counties  possess  has  been  commented 
upon.  The  situation  reveals  the  desire  of  the  people  for  an  adequate 
social  life.  Many  of  the  volunteer  agencies  have  salaried  execu- 
tives giving  their  entire  time  to  the  work.  Analysis  of  the  situation 
showed/  however,  that  even  with  this  assistance  the  entire  possible 
field  was  not  being  reached,  that  agencies  were  operating  in  the  same 
communities,  that  the  less  favored  centers  were  being  neglected. 
In  one  small  community,  for  instance,  there  exist  a  Red  Cross  unit, 
a  Women's  Improvement  Club  and  a  committee  of  Community 
Service.  The  memberships  of  these  three  organizations  in  this  local 
community  are  largely  identical  and  while  the  last  named  theoreti- 
cally works  through  the  other  two,  and  while  there  is  cooperation 
among  all  of  them,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  impression  of  three 

'See  Chapter  III. 

102 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

organizations  as,  indeed,  the  local  people  consider  them  to  be.  Vol- 
unteer social  agencies  are  being  organized  and  developed  in  America 
today  somewhat  as  denominations  organized  churches  in  the  old 
days.  These  agencies  seek  out  the  "most  strategic  places."  For 
denominations  a  strategic  place  was  where  it  had  a  few  members. 
For  social  agencies  it  is  where  there  are  people  rich  enough  to 
support  the  program.  They  then  organize  and  begin  to  work  on 
"their  program."  It  is  a  program  which  the  local  people  have  not 
formulated  but  which  they  accept  and  support  because  it  meets,  to 
a  satisfactory  degree,  needs  which  they  have  come  to  recognize. 
A  scientific  study  of  the  local  situation  rarely  precedes  the  determi- 
nation of  this  program  or  prompts  a  given  community  to  invite  in 
any  particular  agency  to  meet  ascertained  needs.  Other  agencies 
follow  the  first  one  and  the  situation  arises  which  may  be  found  in 
either  of  these  counties. 

These  various  agencies  and  their  programs  have  much  to  com- 
mend them,  nationally  and  locally.  Cordial  cooperation  exists 
among  their  executives.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  so  far 
as  the  local  people  are  willing  to  furnish  funds  and  volunteer  work- 
ers, agencies  multiply  with  no  attempt  at  correlation  and  with  no 
attempt  to  discover  whether  local  needs  require  all  these  agencies 
or  only  some  of  them,  or  perhaps  an  entirely  different  one  which 
would  effectively  combine  the  locally  valuable  parts  of  many  of  the 
programs.  Social  agencies  are  in  danger  of  repeating  the  very  mis- 
take for  which  they  have  frequently  and  justifiably  criticized  the 
Church.  As  a  result  there  is  both  overlapping  and  overlooking. 

The  tax  supported  agencies  also  sometimes  get  in  one  another's 
way,  largely  because  of  the  operation  of  state  laws.  Practically  all 
of  the  volunteer  organizations  need  to  cooperate  with  those  of  the 
county  and  state.  A  county  council  of  social  agencies,  perhaps 
meeting  only  quarterly,  would  serve  as  a  clearing  house  of  infor- 
mation and  as  a  coordinating  factor  in  the  working  out  of  the  very 
good  programs  now  in  operation.  In  this  way,  too,  larger  results 
might  be  attained  without  added  expense. 

4.    WIDER  USE  OF  THE  SCHOOL  PLANT 

The  County  Superintendents  of  Schools  and  many  of  the  school 
principals  are  sympathetic  to  efforts  looking  toward  richer  com- 
munity life.  It  is  surprising  to  find,  therefore,  that  wider  use  is 
not  made  of  school  plants,  especially  in  Stanislaus  County.  Here 
in  only  25  per  cent  of  the  communities  of  the  county  are  they  used 

103 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

to  any  great  extent  outside  of  school  hours.  In  some  of  the  com- 
munities the  school  is  the  only  available  social  center,  and  it  would 
greatly  enrich  the  life  of  the  people  if  the  school  either  of  itself 
or  by  utilizing  the  agencies  already  at  work  could  put  on  more  of 
a  social  program  which  would  include  lectures,  evening  classes, 
musicales  and  social  activities.  In  some  communities  this  might 
very  well  be  done  in  cooperation  with  progressive  churches. 

5-    RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

It  is  disappointing  to  find  that  the  equipment  of  the  church 
schools  and  the  standards  of  religious  education  compare  unfavor- 
ably with  those  of  the  day  schools.  Less  than  one- third  of  the 
Sunday  schools  use  graded  lessons.  Only  12  or  14  per  cent  of  the 
churches  have  stereopticons  or  motion-picture  machines  and  far 
too  little  use  is  made  of  these  in  dealing  with  the  young  people. 
Religious  education  is  as  important  as  that  received  in  the  day 
schools.  Where  methods  are  modern  and  equipment  is  up-to-date 
in  the  day  schools,  religious  education  must  suffer  by  comparison 
in  the  minds  of  the  people.  There  is  no  reason  why  these  counties 
with  their  strong  churches  and  stronger  Sunday  schools,  together 
with  their  efficient  county  Sunday  school  associations,  could  not 
reach  considerably  higher  standards  of  equipment  and  curriculum. 

Another  weakness  in  the  religious  educational  life  is  the  failure 
of  all  but  six  of  the  churches  to  make  any  provision  for  teacher 
or  leadership  training.  With  population  and  Sunday  school  enroll- 
ment alike  growing,  almost  60  per  cent  of  the  schools  still  depend 
upon  chance  for  recruiting  new  teachers  who  may  or  may  not  have 
had  previous  experience  or  adequate  training  for  the  task.  No 
department  is  more  important.  The  Sunday  schools  of  these  coun- 
ties should  not  be  content  with  average  or  traditional  attainments 
when  they  have  within  their  grasp  the  possibility  of  making  a  demon- 
stration the  local  value  of  which  would  be  considerable  in  terms  of 
deepened  spiritual  life  and  a  more  certain  and  thoroughgoing  prod- 
uct in  Christian  living.  In  a  national  sense  the  results  of  some  such 
program  would  be  useful  as  a  demonstration  of  methods  and 
achievements. 

6.   EVANGELISM  * 

Even  omitting  for  the  moment  the  population  now  outside  of 
church  parishes,  the  membership  of  the  evangelical  churches  em- 
1  See  Chapter  VII,  Church  Membership. 

104 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

braces  less  than  one-eighth  of  the  population.  Including  the  cities 
and  adding  the  Roman  Catholic  membership,  one  finds  less  than 
one-quarter  of  the  population  affiliated  with  any  church.  When 
due  allowance  is  made  for  children,  this  leaves  a  large  task  before 
the  forces  of  religion. 

In  the  face  of  this  task  it  is  a  distinct  shock  to  find  that  the 
evangelistic  gain  of  the  churches  for  the  last  year  barely  equals 
the  loss  from  death  and  removal,  although  the  churches  themselves 
in  the  aggregate  did  show  a  considerable  gain.  The  churches  are 
increasing  because  enough  of  the  newcomers  are  sufficiently  inter- 
ested in  the  church  and  religion  to  be  prevailed  upon  to  present  their 
church  letters  and  to  unite  with  the  congregation  of  their  choice. 

This  new  population  is  of  three  kinds.  First  of  all  there  is  the 
rancher  or  farmer  who  is  desirous  of  acquiring  land,  settling  down 
and  becoming  a  part  of  the  life  of  the  community.  Second,  there 
is  the  man  who  has  been  attracted  by  the  oil  development  which  is 
causing  a  second  rush  to  parts  of  Orange  County  comparable  in 
some  measure  to  the  gold  rush  of  earlier  years  in  Stanislaus.  .The 
oil  prospector  is  a  different  sort.  Wealth  and  quick  wealth  is  his 
objective.  His  psychology  is  competitive  whereas  that  of  the 
farmer  «is  cooperative.  His  environment  is  industrial  though  the 
geographical  surroundings  may  be  rural.  The  third  element  con- 
sists of  the  racial  groups. 

In  their  own  way,  the  needs  of  each  of  these  several  groups  pre- 
sent a  challenge  to  the  churches.  Of  course,  the  quickest  way  to 
reach  them  is  through  the  conventional  type  of  evangelistic  cam- 
paign on  a  community  basis  with  a  tabernacle  and  an  imported  evan- 
gelist or  perhaps  through  similar  campaigns  conducted  in  churches. 
This  method  has  not,  however,  been  successful  to  any  marked  de- 
gree, with  perhaps  one  exception.  This  is  especially  true  of  Orange 
County.  It  is  not  pertinent  to  our  recommendations  to  give  a  rea- 
son for  this  lack  of  success.  The  important  thing  is  the  fact  itself 
which  helps  to  make  still  clearer  the  vast  opportunities  of  the  church 
to  reach  out  and  evangelize.  The  problem  is  one  of  methods  and 
forces  and  the  location  of  the  opportunity.  For  those  sympathetic 
to  religion  the  Sunday  school  is  an  effective  approach.  Its  aggre- 
gate enrollment  is  2,725  higher  than  the  active  membership  of  the 
town  and  country  churches.1  This  means,  of  course,  that  the  new- 
comers in  the  community  are  either  turning  first  to  the  Sunday 
school  or  are  being  reached  for  the  church  first  of  all  through  the 
interest  of  Sunday  school  scholars  in  the  children  of  their  new 

1  See   Chapter   VIII,  page  76. 

105 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

neighbors.  An  analysis  of  the  Sunday  school  membership  justifies 
the  conclusion  that  a  careful  personal  cultivation  of  the  families 
represented  would  within  a  year  or  two  net  large  gains  for  the 
churches.  In  view  of  this  fact  it  is  especially  regrettable  that  the 
program  of  these  schools  is  not  more  modern  and  broad. 

A  second  method  1  that  is  useful  is  to  have  classes  in  preparation 
for  church  membership  either  within  or  without  the  Sunday  school. 
This  has  always  been  a  custom  of  certain  of  the  liturgical  denomi- 
nations and,  while  it  is  open  to  the  charge  of  formalism,  neverthe- 
less it  creates  in  the  minds  of  the  students  a  favorable  presumption. 
Young  people  growing  up  in  such  a  church  have  constantly  brought 
to  their  attention  that  whatever  the  personal  religious  experience 
may  be,  it  is  only  through  such  an  avenue  and  only  after  such  a 
course  that  young  Christians  are  received  into  the  organized  church. 
The  records  from  practically  every  church  studied  indicate  that  the 
churches  having  such  classes  make  a  larger  net  annual  gain,  other 
things  being  equal,  than  do  the  churches  without  such  classes.  In 
counties  like  these  it  would  be  particularly  useful  to  build  up  a 
tradition  and  it  is  certain  that  such  classes  offer  an  unexcelled 
opportunity  to  the  pastor. 

In  view  of  the  constantly  changing  conditions  of  the  county  a 
third  recommendation  is  that  in  every  community  annual  cooperative 
parish  surveys  be  undertaken  to  locate  the  unchurched  territory  and 
homes  and  particularly  the  newcomers.  These  surveys  should  be 
undertaken  cooperatively  wherever  there  is  more  than  one  church, 
for  whatever  religious  traditions  may  mean  in  the  old  and  settled 
portions  of  America,  they  are  far  weaker  here,  and  for  such  a  study 
to  be  made  as  a  basis  for  a  competitive  scramble  for  members  in 
any  given  community  would  only  defeat  the  chance  of  the  church 
to  reach  the  new  people.  With  the  information  gathered  from 
a  cooperative  parish  survey  there  might  well  be  organized  by  the 
churches  a  campaign  of  personal  good  will,  evangelism  and  com- 
munity service  extending  over  the  year  and  conducted  by  the  pastor 
and  his  leaders.  This  could  hardly  fail  of  success  in  drawing  many 
into  the  organized  churches.  It  has  done  so  elsewhere. 

These  methods  are  more  difficult,  less  spectacular  and  slower  in 
culmination  than  the  brief  evangelistic  campaign,  but  they  are  also 
more  certain  because  they  are  more  continuing  and  because  they 
call  for  greater  consecration  and  determination  on  the  part  of  the 
church  workers.  They  mean  that  the  whole  church  program  for  the 
entire  year  must  be  centered  upon  the  one  idea  of  bringing  the  spirits 
1  See  Chapter  VIII,  page  77. 

106 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

of  men  into  harmony  with  the  Spirit  of  God  and  that  all  must  con- 
tribute to  that  great  end,  which,  after  all,  is  the  objective  of  the 
Church. 

So  much  for  the  evangelistic  program  where  the  Church  is 
strong.  What  can  be  done  where  it  is  weaker  or  non-existent? 
Such  situations  divide  themselves  into  three  kinds,  the  populous 
irrigated  sections,  the  dry  farming  areas  and  the  oil  centers.  The 
most  startling  example  of  neglect  of  any  given  area  by  the  churches, 
simply  because  growth  in  population  has  outstripped  the  ability  of 
the  Church  to  function,  is  to  be  found  in  Modesto  rural  community. 
Not  all  of  the  twelve  hundred  rural  members  of  the  Modesto 
churches  live  in  this  community  adjacent  to  the  city.  It  is  prob- 
ably safe  to  say  that  of  the  population  of  approximately  7,000  people 
no  more  than  2,000  are  members  of  any  church,  evangelical  or 
Catholic.  This  area  is  growing  with  more  celerity  than  any  other 
agricultural  section  of  these  counties.  To  cultivate  it  adequately 
calls  for  cooperation  between  the  various  city  churches,  for  Modesto 
itself  is  expanding  so  rapidly  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  the  pas- 
tors without  some  assistants  and  without  cooperation,  could  possibly 
meet  the  evangelistic  opportunity  which  is  awaiting  them.  In  ad- 
dition, there  are  similar,  though  much  smaller  areas  lying  between 
Riverbank  and  Oakdale,  and  also  east  of  Patterson  and  Newman 
along  the  San  Joaquin  river.  (See  map  of  Stanislaus  County.) 

In  the  dry-farming  or  less  favored  agricultural  areas  of  Stanis- 
laus County  religious  work  has  been  all  but  discontinued.  In 
Orange  County  it  is  still  sustained  but  reaches  less  than  4  per  cent 
of  the  population.1  Many  communities  are  totally  without  religious 
services  of  any  kind  and  still  more  are  without  any  evangelical 
services.  The  population  affected  is  at  the  very  least  7,500,  more 
than  6  per  cent  of  the  total  of  the  two  counties.  A  missionary  with  a 
car  and  a  moving-picture  machine  should  be  stationed  in  the  center 
of  the  needy  territory  in  each  of  these  counties.  He  could  reach 
most  of  the  centers  at  least  once  every  week,  and  with  the  good 
roads  might  do  better.  He  could  do  house  to  house  visiting  and 
act  also  as  a  colporteur.  He  could  initiate,  with  necessary  modifi- 
cations because  of  the  sparsely  settled  area,  a  program  similar  to 
that  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 

It  should  be  recalled  that  all  through  these  areas  there  are  enough 

people  and  children   for  day  schools  to  be  sustained.     Wherever 

there  is  a  group  of  that  size  it  is  legitimate  to  ask  why  the  Church 

cannot  do  better  than  hold  one  service  a  quarter  by  a  Sunday  school 

1  See  Chapter  VII,  page  73. 

107 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

missionary.  Such  a  work  could  be  financed  by  the  home  missionary 
money  now  being  expended  to  sustain  competitive  organizations, 
or  might  be  allocated  to  one  denomination.  Another  plan  would 
be  for  the  counties  themselves  to  forni  some  sort  of  organization 
to  take  care  of  this  problem.  It  is,  indeed,  a  local  responsibility 
and  the  money  to  float  the  enterprise  and  perhaps  to  help  to  sustain 
it,  could  easily  be  contributed  within  each  county.  The  people 
themselves  would  help.  They  do  not  need  missionaries  in  the  old 
sense  of  that  term.  They  need  a  ministry,  toward  which,  once  it 
approved  itself,  they  would  be  glad  to  contribute. 

There  may  be  difficulties  inherent  in  every  one  of  these  plans  but 
surely  a  way  can  be  found.  Seventy-five  hundred  people  are  the 
opportunity.  Will  the  Christian  people  of  these  counties  and  the 
denominational  officials  responsible  let  difficulties  stand  in  the  way? 
What  can  be  done  is  illustrated  in  San  Juan  Capistrano.  The  farm 
lands  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  village  have  been  changing  hands 
rapidly  in  the  last  years  and  the  population  has  become  increasingly 
Protestant.  Instead  of  neglecting  this  field  or  giving  it  but  meagre 
attention  one  denomination  has  ministered  to  it  and  has  constantly 
increased  its  ministry,  so  that  today  from  what  was  once  a  little 
mission  Sunday  school  has  come  a  congregation  strong  enough  to 
undertake  the  erection  of  an  $8,000  modern  village  church  building. 

The  oil  communities  are  perhaps  the  most  difficult  to  handle. 
The  population  is  constantly  shifting.  The  spirit  is  materialistic 
in  the  extreme.  The  psychology  is  similar  to  that  of  a  gold  mining 
community  in  its  prime.  In  Orange  County  the  work  in  these  cen- 
ters is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  oil  has  appeared  both  in  the  coast 
resorts  and  in  the  citrus  communities.  Especially  in  the  former 
the  churches  must  compete  for  their  share  of  time  investment  on 
the  part  of  the  people.  Methods  must  be  varied  accordingly. 
Advertisements  in  the  newspapers,  reprinted  and  distributed  as 
modern  tracts,  would  help.  Most  of  the  larger  denominations  have 
advertising  experts  who  could  advise  on  this  point.  Community 
work  along  Y.M.C.A.  lines  would  help.  A  "hut"  such  as  was 
described  in  Chapter  VIII,  enlarged  to  take  in  the  whole  community, 
would  be  an  asset.  The  situation  in  an  oil  boom  community,  like 
that  in  the  wartime  industrial  towns  of  a  few  years  ago,  cannot  be 
satisfactorily  handled  except  by  cooperation  and  mutual  under- 
standing. The  lessons  of  successful  work  in  these  war  centers  in 
1917,  1918,  and  1919  might  well  be  taken  to  heart  here.  Of  course, 
in  all  these  things,  the  emphasis  must  ring  true  with  the  great  pur- 
pose of  the  Church. 

108 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

7.    RELATION    OF    CITY   AND    TOWN    CHURCHES    TO    THE   COUNTRYSIDE 

It  will  be  recalled  that  in  Orange  County  the  city  churches  have 
considerably  more  farmer  members  than  all  the  town,  village  and 
country  churches  combined.  In  Stanislaus  County  the  city  churches 
have  almost  as  many  as  the  town  and  country  congregations.  This 
places  a  great  responsibility  upon  the  city  churches  and  calls  for 
cooperation  between  all  the  churches  of  the  county.  It  is  very  easy 
for  the  city  pastor  to  assume  that  certain  families  are  being  cared 
for  by  the  outlying  churches  and  equally  easy  for  those  who  minister 
to  outlying  churches  to  assume  that  a  given  home  is  cared  for  by 
the  city.  Furthermore,  there  is  danger  that  the  churches  will  com- 
pete for  members  in  an  unfortunate  way.  The  churches  cannot 
afford  to  get  in  one  another's  way  in  reaching  any  element  of  the 
population  and  least  of  all  the  farming  element  which  is  more  re- 
sponsive to  the  Church  than  all  the  other  occupational  groups  in 
these  counties.  This,  too,  is  a  subject  closely  related  to  evangelism. 

8.    HOME   MISSION  AID 

The  situation  in  regard  to  the  assistance  granted  needy  churches 
has  been  described.1  Slightly  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  churches 
in  these  rich  counties  are  receiving  such  help,  exclusive  of  appro- 
priations to  Mexican  and  Oriental  work.  Nearly  $4,100  a  year 
goes  to  assist  small,  competitive  churches.  Denominational  officials 
should  examine  into  these  grants  and  determine  whether  they  can 
be  justified,  especially  in  view  of  the  missionary  opportunities  in 
these  two  counties  which  are  now  being  neglected.  The  time  is  here 
when  men  inside  and  outside  the  Church  will  judge  it  by  the  stand- 
ard of  Jesus.  The  Church  cannot  retain  the  respect  of  its  own 
intelligent  membership,  it  cannot  expect  to  demand  cooperation  and 
mutual  understanding  between  employer  and  employee  in  industry 
and  between  nation  and  nation  in  world  affairs  while  at  the  same 
time  it  continues  wasteful  competition  and,  partly  as  a  result  thereof, 
underpays  its  own  leadership. 

9.    OVER-CHURCHING 

A  glance  at  the  maps  will  show  that  so  far  as  parish  lines  are 
concerned,  there  is  a  considerable  amount  of  overlapping  of  church 
parishes.  This  does  not  in  every  case  necessarily  mean  over- 

1  See  Chapter  V,  page  57. 

109 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

churching,  for  the  average  church  memberships  are  high,  reaching 
216  in  the  towns  and  seventy-nine  in  the  villages.  Furthermore, 
these  churches  have  a  large  potential  field  for  development.  Then, 
too,  many  of  these  situations  are  tolerated  and  can  continue  with 
impunity  because  the  people  are  rich  enough  to  support  them.  There 
are,  however,  certain  situations  which  ought  to  be  adjusted  in  the 
interest  of  better  work,  and  these  should  be  referred  to  the  denomi- 
national officers  for  consideration.  This  is  especially  true  in  the 
cities  and  villages  and  concerns  the  aided  churches  which  have 
already  been  discussed.  Perhaps  the  most  flagrant  illustrations  of 
lack  of  statesmanship  between  the  city  and  country  churches  are 
shown  where  congregations  of  the  same  denominations  compete 
for  members.  In  Orange  County  there  is  to  be  found  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  denomination.  The  splendid 
mother  church  at  Santa  Ana  once  fostered  missions  which  are  now 
self-supporting  congregations,  but  the  loyalty  of  some  members 
gives  it  a  parish  that  extends  for  many  miles  around  and  includes, 
in  some  instances,  the  total  parish  of  other  churches  of  the  same 
denomination.  The  efforts  under  way  in  Methodism  to  do  away 
with  situations  of  this  kind  should  be  introduced  here. 

IO.    STEWARDSHIP 

The  economic  stability  of  the  areas  studied  has  been  emphasized 
throughout  this  discussion.  "Unto  whomsoever  much  is  given  of 
him  shall  much  be  required."  It  is  a  fair  question  to  ask  these 
counties  whether  or  not  they  have  lived  up  to  their  stewardship. 
At  first  glance  there  appears  to  be  no  doubt  that  they  have.  An 
annual  contribution  of  more  than  $31  from  every  communicant 
member,  an  average  budget  of  more  than  $3,000  for  every  church, 
missionary  offerings  from  one-quarter  to  one-half  of  the  total 
budget  of  practically  every  group  of  churches,  these  things  few 
counties  can  equal.  The  real  question  goes,  however,  deeper  than 
this.  It  has  been  seen  that  church  budgets  have  not  risen  as  rapidly 
as  school  appropriations  or  bank  deposits;  that  one-seventh  of  the 
churches  averaged  better  than  fifty  dollars  per  member,  four  of  this 
number  exceeding  one  hundred  dollars.  Splendid  as  the  record 
of  missionary  giving  looks  in  the  aggregate,  the  bulk  of  it  comes 
from  less  than  one-half  of  the  churches.  The  foregoing  statement 
is  the  more  significant  when  it  is  remembered  that  almost  all  of  the 
churches  have  resident  ministers  on  full  time.  The  half  that  are 
not  giving  are  not  weak  churches  which  lack  pastoral  oversight. 

110 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

There  are  so  few  of  these  in  these  two  counties  that  they  are  neg- 
ligible. These  figures  simply  mean  that  many  of  the  Christians 
have  not  yet  realized  their  obligations.  The  fact  that  the  city 
churches  give  so  much  less  per  capita  than  those  in  the  village 
points  to  the  same  conclusion.  Where  the  Church  is  struggling  as 
in  the  range  states  and  in  frontier  regions,  where  resources  are 
scanty  and  life  is  a  battle  for  survival,  from  county  after  county 
records  of  per  capita  giving  approximate  the  thirty-one  dollar  aver- 
age of  these  counties  and  sometimes  exceed  it.  Does  this  indicate 
that  we  Americans  want  churches  for  what  they  are  worth  to  us, 
to  our  communities,  to  our  interests,  and  having  them,  forget  to 
share  what  we  have?  Certainly  it  does  show,  as  do  the  records  of 
the  leading  twelve  churches  in  these  counties,  that  stewardship  is 
neither  understood  nor  practised  by  the  majority  of  the  churches  and 
their  members.  A  broad,  intensive,  persistent,  compelling  steward- 
ship campaign  would  seem  to  be  a  legitimate  undertaking  for  most 
of  the  congregations.  Each  minister  should  compare  the  record 
of  his  church  with  the  averages  given. 

II.    MISSIONARY   INTEREST 

The  last  named  recommendation  gains  added  weight  when  the 
missionary  interest  is  recalled.  During  the  last  ten  years  forty-nine 
people  have  entered  definite  Christian  service.  There  is  undoubt- 
edly an  appreciable  amount  of  deep  and  genuine  missionary  interest 
in  these  counties.  Planted  in  such  sympathetic  soil,  an  annual  co- 
operative county-wide  campaign  of  mission  study  classes  in  the 
churches,  followed  by  missionary  educational  institutes  addressed 
by  speakers  of  note,  should  bring  forth  much  fruit.  Such  speakers 
could  also  be  used  through  the  high  schools  or  at  least  the  Y.M.C.A. 
high  school  groups,  to  enlist  life  work  recruits. 

12.    COMMUNITY   SERVICE 

The  high  responsibility  of  the  Church  is  spiritual  leadership 
but  one  of  its  functions,  indeed  one  of  its  broadest  and  greatest 
duties  is  community  service.  By  it  the  spirit  of  Christ  is  made  to 
permeate  every  phase  of  human  activity.  In  its  highest  form, 
spiritual  leadership  is  community  service  but  the  phrase  is  here  used 
technically  to  cover  those  activities  by  which  the  Church  effectively 
reaches  and  helps,  not  only  its  membership,  but  all  who  come  within 
its  scope,  and  through  which  it  establishes  those  contacts  that  often 
become  the  avenue  to  greater  things. 

Ill 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

In  counties  with  social  and  economic  interests  so  varied  and 
important  it  is  the  more  necessary  for  the  Church  to  take  an  interest 
in  all  those  things  which  interest  the  people.  Only  so  may  its 
power,  its  influence  and  its  inspiration  affect  lives  and  institutions. 
Specifically,  three  of  many  possible  items  to  which  the  churches 
could  give  their  special  attention  are  recreation,  morals  and  special 
work  for  age  and  sex  groups.  These  three  are  interrelated. 

Judged  by  its  effectiveness  in  these  directions,  the  general  church 
program  is  weak.  The  people  have  exceptional  opportunity  to  enjoy 
themselves.  The  Church  should  avail  itself  of  this  fact.  Play  has 
its  moral  values  and  its  social  and  spiritual  'by-products.  Those 
churches  which  have  ventured  along  the  line  of  organized  recrea- 
tion have  been  successful  in  strengthening  their  hold  upon  their 
people  and  upon  their  community.1  They  have  also  been  more 
successful,  on  the  average,  in  meeting  the  moral  problems.  The 
Church  needs  to  face  frankly  the  implications  of  the  new  discoveries 
in  psychology  as  related  to  morals.  The  Church  places  its  holy 
sanction  upon  matrimony.  It  should  make  clear  to  its  people  that 
there  is  nothing  unclean  or  dangerous  in  a  proper  understanding  of 
the  facts  relating  to  sex  and  the  origin  of  life.  The  freedom  of 
life  which  young  people  enjoy  in  America,  which,  if  properly  used, 
is  one  of  our  most  priceless  treasures,  together  with,  in  Orange 
County,  the  close  proximity  of  the  Universal  City  and  its  moving- 
picture  population,  lays  all  the  more  heavily  upon  the  social  and 
religious  agencies  the  task  of  bringing  to  young  people  properly  and 
in  time  a  knowledge  of  those  facts.  As  it  now  is  all  probation 
officers  state  that  their  chief  problems  among  juvenile  offenders  are 
petty  thievery  and  immorality. 

As  is  often  the  case  men,  boys  and  girls  have  been  neglected 
in  special  work  among  separate  age  and  sex  groups.  Even  for  the 
young  people  less  than  half  the  churches  in  Orange  County  have 
a  club  or  society.  For  the  boys  only  one-seventh  of  the  churches 
have  such  organizations,  and  only  one  church  out  of  twelve  has 
organized  its  girls,  excepting  of  course  the  Sunday  schools.  The 
time  to  win  boys  and  girls  to  the  church  for  life  is  in  their  adolescent 
years.  It  is  at  this  time  that  their  activities  are  largely  physical 
but  their  minds  are  forming  the  concepts  which  will  govern  their 
choice  of  life  work  and  their  ideals.  Work  for  these  ages  is  diffi- 
cult but  it  is  tremendously  important.  Athletics,  camping,  hikes, 
vocational  guidance,  opportunities  for  self-expression  and  other 
activities  related  to  the  desires  and  the  questions  of  these  developing 
'See  Chapter  VIII,  page  84. 

112 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

/ 

personalities  should  be  part  of  the  church  program.  The  boys'  and 
girls'  have  a  right  to  expect  such  attentions  from  the  church.  Where 
these  things  are  furnished  by  the  schools,  the  church  has  a  respon- 
sibility to  see  that  they  are  well  furnished.  The  church  may  also 
call  upon  one  of  its  allies,  as  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, to  take  care  of  this  part  of  the  religious  work  program  but 
having  so  called,  it  should  back  its  helpers  to  the  limit  with  finances 
and  leadership. 

That  only  four  churches  have  men's  organizations  is  almost 
unbelievable  and  yet  this  is  the  case.  If  the  men  of  the  churches 
could  be  organized  for  religion  as  they  have  been  organized  for 
economic  and  social  progress,  a  great,  new,  energizing  factor  would 
be  thrust  into  the  religious  life  of  the  county.  Here  again,  the 
church  should  call  upon  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  for 
assistance. 

One-half  of  the  churches  are  without  any  of  the  items  of  such  a 
program  as  has  been  discussed.  They  confine  themselves  exclu- 
sively to  preaching  and  the  usual  offices  that  center  upon  worship 
and  the  activities  of  the  Sunday  school.  These  churches  have  no 
week-day  activities  for  any  age  or  sex  group  except  women.  They 
exercise  no  influence  on  community  problems.  In  times  like  these 
the  advocacy  of  a  broad  program  needs  no  defense.  It  is  the 
churches  that  fail  to  measure  up  to  their  full  possibilities  which  in 
reality  are  on  the  defensive.  In  counties  as  new  as  these  in  which 
the  population  is  increasing  rapidly,  and  in  which  much  of  the  popu- 
lation is  foreign-born,  a  grave  necessity  exists  for  the  Church  to  be 
alert,  strong  and  purposeful  throughout  every  day  of  the  week, 
in  order  that  the  moral  standards  of  the  community  may  be  sus- 
tained and  the  progressive  work  of  schools  and  welfare  agencies 
carried  on,  in  a  congenial  and  understanding  atmosphere. 

13.    CHURCH    EQUIPMENT 

One  thing  which  the  suggestions  of  the  last  paragraphs  call  for 
is  better  church  equipment.  For  the  most  part  the  churches  are 
ample  in  size.  Half  of  them  have  three  rooms  or  more,  one-third 
have  five  or  more.  The  type  of  building  does  not,  however,  do 
credit  to  the  situation  and  the  equipment  of  the  churches  is  meagre 
in  the  extreme.  The  more  modern  educational  material  is  found 
in  the  Sunday  schools  in  only  a  few  instances.  Except  for  the 
kitchens,  social  material  is  almost  entirely  lacking.  Only  a  few  of 
the  churches  have  buildings  such  as  the  hut  described  in  Chapter 

113 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

VIII  or  the  community  hall  at  La  Habra.  The  extra  rooms  are 
used  an  hour  a  week  in  connection  with  the  Sunday  schools  but 
hardly  at  all  through  the  week  when  they  might  be  turned  over  to 
clubs  of  various  kinds.  Though  the  land  is  available  hardly  a 
church  has  a  playground.  A  great  advance  could  be  made  in  church 
equipment  by  90  per  cent  of  the  churches. 

14.   THE    MINISTERS 

The  churches  of  these  counties  are  served  by  a  devoted  group  of 
ministers.  The  record  of  their  labor  and  of  that  of  their  prede- 
cessors is  given  in  these  pages  and  speaks  for  itself.  The  sugges- 
tions thus  far  given  are  no  reflection  upon  these  men.  The  Church 
is  just  beginning  to  think  in  new  terms,  apply  new  standards  of 
judgment,  press  forward  to  new  levels  of  achievement.  Judged  by 
the  standards  of  yesterday  these  men  are  among  the  most  successful 
pastors  in  America,  and  in  the  face  of  handicaps.  In  Stanislaus 
County  salaries  are  disgracefully  and  unreasonably  low.  To  give 
their  best  service  ministers  must  have  enough  to  meet  the  expenses 
of  living  and  bringing  up  a  family.  They  must  have  enough  to  buy 
tools,  namely,  books,  magazines,  trips  to  conventions.  They  must 
have  periods  of  rest  for  no  work  takes  as  much  out  of  a  man  as 
spiritual  leadership.  They  cannot  have  all  this  on  $1,200  or  $1,500 
a  year.  And  it  should  be  remembered  that  though  salaries  in 
Orange  County  are  higher  on  the  average,  the  man  who  receives 
less  than  the  average  cannot  buy  butter  and  books  on  a  theoretical 
average  income. 

Church  officers  should  further  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that,  though 
the  minister  is  the  executive  of  an  organization,  he  and  not  the  or- 
ganization ordinarily  pays  its  postage  bills  and  that  very  often  the 
minister  contributes  twenty-five  or  thirty  dollars  a  month  to  the 
upkeep  of  an  automobile  which,  though  his,  is  used  almost  exclu- 
sively to  enable  him  to  do  the  work  of  the  church.  If  church  offi- 
cials were  asked  to  contribute  toward  a  delivery  truck  for  their 
grocer  they  would  object  but  they  permit  the  minister  to  make  just 
that  type  of  contribution  to  the  church  month  after  month.  This 
situation,  coupled  with  the  surprising  lack  of  parsonages,  only  fifty 
of  the  eighty-two  churches  having  them,  accounts  somewhat  for  the 
lamentable  restlessness  among  the  ministers  in  the  northern  county. 

15.   DECLINING   CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP 

With  all  the  progress  the  county  has  made,  and  despite  the 
rapidly  increasing  population  and  church  membership,  the  fact 

114 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

remains  that  in  the  year  preceding  the  survey,  the  gain  in  church 
membership,  while  large,  was  shared  in  by  only  57  per  cent  of  the 
churches.  Over  a  five-year  period  we  find  that  of  the  twenty-four 
churches  with  less  than  fifty  members,  eight  only  made  a  gain. 
Such  a  condition  raises  squarely  the  question  of  the  survival  of  such 
churches.  Twenty  of  the  thirty-two  churches  with  less  than  fifty 
members  cannot  long  survive  unless  conditions  change.  Most  of 
them  now  have  less  than  twenty-five  members.  The  situation 
should  be  studied  carefully  in  order  that  those  which  deserve 
strengthening  may  receive  help,  and  that  in  the  event  of  some  of 
them  ceasing  finally  to  function  their  present  constituencies  will 
not  be  neglected. 

1 6.   THE   FOREIGN-BORN 

Twenty-six  thousand  foreign-born  live  in  these  two  counties. 
Not  many  areas  in  rural  America  have  as  high  a  proportion  as  is 
to  be  found  in  Stanislaus  County.  This  calls  for  Americanization 
and,  more  important  still,  for  Christianization.  The  Japanese  and 
Mexicans  will  be  dealt  with  below  in  separate  paragraphs.  Of  the 
other  groups  the  Portuguese  present  the  greatest  problem  and  what 
is  said  of  this  group  applies  in  less  degree  to  the  other  smaller 
racial  groups  as  the  Italian,  Armenian  and  Greek.  The  work  at 
Hughson  has  already  been  alluded  to.  Most  of  all,  the  foreigner 
needs  education.  The  county  is  rich  enough  to  follow  the  example 
of  many  cities  and  operate  night  schools  for  him,  which  should 
include  agricultural  education.  The  churches  of  the  county  must 
be  friendly  with  the  foreigner,  especially  until  he  is  firmly  estab- 
lished and  has  become  acquainted  with  the  customs  of  the  country. 
They  must  be  patient  and  learn  to  understand  him  as  they  expect 
him  to  learn  and  understand  America.  Daily  Vacation  Bible 
Schools  would  form  a  ready  means  of  reaching  the  children  of  the 
foreign-born.  Churches,  schools  and  social  agencies  should  aid  in 
securing  such  amendments  to  the  laws  as  would  permit  the  employ- 
ment of  "helping"  teachers. 

17.    THE   JAPANESE   QUESTION 

He  were  a  veritable  seer  who  could  suggest  a  solution  to  the 
involved  Japanese  problem.  One  little  section  of  the  near  side  of 
this  problem  exists  in  these  counties.  The  Churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  associated  in  their  Federal  Council  and  in  connection  with 
the  Disarmament  Conference  of  1921,  declared  in  a  "creed  for 

115 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

believers  of  a  warless  world" — "We  believe  in  the  equality  of  race 
treatment."  If  this  means  anything  at  all,  it  means  that  where  there 
is  an  acute  racial  problem,  the  churches  must  apply  the  principles  of 
Christianity,  and  so  inspire  and  lead  their  members,  that  regardless 
of  personal  sacrifice  economic  and  racial  difficulties  shall  be  adjusted 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Such  is 
the  task  for  the  congregations  of  American  born.  Mission  Boards, 
on  the  other  hand,  should  extend  their  activities  among  the  for- 
eigners on  a  cooperative  basis  to  include  the  rural  sections.  There 
should  be  no  such  situations  as  exist  in  Orange  County.  Here  are 
more  than  2,000  Orientals,  for  the  most  part  an  intelligent,  law- 
abiding,  useful  group  of  people.  Livingston,  California,  shows 
what  can  be  done.  Such  work  should  be  more  generally  and  more 
energetically  extended  into  the  country  where  so  large  a  proportion 
of  the  Japanese  work  and  make  their  contacts  with  American  life. 

l8.    MEXICAN    WORK 

The  Mexican  population,  as  has  been  indicated,  is  the  biggest 
social  problem  Orange  County  faces  in  any  given  group.  It  is  not 
possible  to  segregate  the  Mexican  in  any  but  the  geographical  sense 
and  even  this  is  not  done  as  a  matter  of  policy.  In  every  other 
way,  as  a  servant,  as  a  laborer  and  as  a  member  of  the  community, 
the  Mexican  comes  in  contact  with  the  American.  As  noted,  the 
Methodists  have  undertaken  the  bulk  of  the  Mexican  work  in  these 
counties.  In  certain  communities  this  has  brought  about  its  prob- 
lems. For  instance,  one  strong  community  church  doing  excellent 
community  service  among  the  Mexican  population  feels  that  it  is 
estopped  by  the  existing  arrangement  from  dealing  with  the  Mexi- 
cans spiritually.  The  Methodists  use  the  building  of  this  church 
for  their  services.  This  is  an  exceptional  situation  which  can  be 
worked  out  but  it  leads  to  a  very  definite  conclusion,  namely,  that 
while  the  Mexican  work  may  be  administered  by  the  Methodists, 
the  Christianization  of  the  Mexican  is  a  problem  of  far  wider  con- 
cern to  all  who  live  within  the  county.  The  Methodists  deserve  the 
support,  perhaps  not  in  money,  but  certainly  in  service  wherever 
necessary,  of  every  American  evangelical  church  and  how  this  sup- 
port may  be  given  is  shown  in  the  instance  that  has  been  mentioned. 
On  the  other  hand  there  should  be  recognition  of  work  done  by 
others  especially  where,  because  of  the  lack  of  a  resident  minister 
or  a  building,  the  Methodist  Church  could  not  hope  to  carry  on  such 
work  as  is  being  accomplished. 

116 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

IQ.    COOPERATION    AMONG   CHURCHES 

There  have  been  scores  of  facts  and  conclusions  in  the  fore- 
going chapters  that  indicated  the  necessity  for  some  sort  of  co- 
operation among  the  evangelical  churches  of  each  of  these  counties. 
Such  cooperation  is  of  two  kinds,  local  and  county- wide. 

A.  Local 

There  are  several  communities  such  as  Turlock,  Oakdale,  Fuller- 
ton  and  the  cities  of  both  counties  where  local  councils  of  churches 
might  well  be  formed.  This  would  require  scarcely  any  budget  as 
no  office  would  have  to  be  maintained  or  secretary  employed.  The 
organization  would  simply  bring  together  both  ministers  and  lay 
officials  to  face  joint  problems.  Ministerial  associations  are  in 
existence  and  do  much  but  they  are  more  for  discussing  the  prob- 
lems and  interests  peculiar  to  the  minister's  profession.  In  mat- 
ters of  law  and  order,  morals  and  community-wide  movements  a 
local  federation  would  be  useful,  or  if  not  that,  an  interchurch 
committee.  For  one  thing  arrangements  might  be  made  for  minis- 
ters and  laymen  to  go  into  the  neglected  areas,  especially  from  those 
communities  where  frequent  union  services  are  in  vogue. 

B.  County-Wide. 

It  appears  to  the  surveyors  that  the  churches  of  these  two 
counties  are  standing  at  the  threshold  of  great  possibilities.  As 
the  facts  have  been  set  down  it  has  become  increasingly  clear  that 
there  are  great  tasks  ahead  of  them,  great  opportunities  to  be 
seized,  great  needs  to  be  met.  Many  of  these  tasks  are  falling 
between  the  churches.  Others  are  but  imperfectly  accomplished. 
That  this  is  so  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  churches  are  not  close 
enough  together.  A  county  Clerical  Club  or  a  County  Ministerium 
does  not  meet  the  need.  In  one  of  these  counties  near  a  certain 
community  which  has  three  churches  is  a  neglected  community  with 
a  large  number  of  foreign-born.  Said  the  pastor  of  denomination 
A,  "Yes,  there's  work  being  done  there,  by  the  B's  I  think."  Said 
the  minister  of  the  B  church,  "Yes,  I  know  about  that  problem. 
The  people  of  the  C  church  are  at  work  down  there  if  I'm  not  mis- 
taken." Hopefully  the  surveyors  went  to  the  clergyman  in  charge 
of  the  C  church.  Said  he,  "Why,  no,  we  do  nothing  there.  I  am 
under  the  impression  the  A's  are  doing  a  little  something." 

THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  WAY  IN  WHICH  ALL  THE  PROBLEMS  OF  THE 
CHURCH  CAN  BE  SOLVED  IN  THESE  COUNTIES  AND  THAT  IS  BY  CO- 
OPERATION— AND  MUTUAL  UNDERSTANDING  AND  TRUST. 

117 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

Such  cooperation,  actualized  and  made  effective  in  a  county 
council  of  churches,  could  undertake  many  important  tasks  in  addi- 
tion to  the  care  of  the  neglected  areas.  It  could  plan  for  parish 
and  community  surveys  and  the  proper  evangelistic  follow-up; 
arrange  for  missionary  institutes ;  take  over  the  county  Sunday 
School  Associations ;  develop  boys'  and  girls'  work  and  bring  about 
such  a  county-wide  organization  of  young  people's  societies  as  is 
proving  so  valuable  in  other  sections.  It  could  focus  the  moral 
force  of  all  the  churches  and  present  their  united  mind  on  any  mat- 
ter of  public  interest,  such  as  law  enforcement  or  Americanization, 
and  could  act  as  a  clearing  house  of  information  and  as  the  medium 
through  which  the  churches  might  cooperate  with  the  social  and 
economic  agencies  of  the  counties.  Each  county  needs  such  an  or- 
ganization. 

In  Ohio,  the  state  denominational  executives  have  declared  in 
favor  of  a  county  council  of  churches  for  every  county  in  their 
state.  In  California,  at  least  in  these  counties,  the  need  for  such 
bodies  is  far  greater  than  in  Ohio.  A  council  of  this  kind  might 
not  have  a  salaried  executive.  There  are  a  number  of  them  in 
Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  without  such  an  officer,  some  of  them,  six 
or  more  years  old,  with  substantial  achievements  behind  them.  But 
in  these  California  counties,  in  the  high  tide  of  their  development, 
with  tasks  so  stupendous  confronting  them,  a  salaried  executive 
would  amply  justify  himself  by  working  out  some  such  cooperative 
program  as  has  been  outlined.  These  counties  now  support  six 
secretaries  at  a  cost  of  over  $25,000  to  look  after  eighty  groups  of 
boys  with  a  total  membership  of  2,000.  Why  should  they  not  each 
support  an  organization  at  a  cost  of  not  more  than  $5,000  per  county 
to  correlate  the  religious  activities  of  135  churches  and  150  Sunday 
schools,  in  the  interest  of  50,000  people,  and  to  bring  their  spiritual 
resources  to  the  thousands  yet  outside  the  membership  of  the 
organized  church? 


118 


APPENDIX  I 
METHODOLOGY  AND  DEFINITIONS 

The  method  used  in  the  Town  and  Country  Surveys  of  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  and  of  the  Committee  on  Social  and 
Religious  Surveys  differs  from  the  method  of  earlier  surveys  in 
this  field  chiefly  in  the  following  particulars: 

1.  "Rural"  was  defined  as  including  all  population  living  out- 
side of  incorporated  places  of  over  5,000.    Previous  surveys  usually 
excluded  all  places  of  2,500  population  or  over,  which  follows  the 
United  States  Census  definition  of  "rural." 

2.  The  local  unit  for  the  assembling  of  material  was  the  com- 
munity, regarded,  usually,  as  the  trade  area  of  a  town  or  village 
center.     Previous  surveys  usually  took  the  minor  civil  division  as 
the  local  unit.     The  disadvantage  of  the  community  unit  is  that 
census  and  other  statistical  data  are  seldom  available  on  that  basis, 
thus  increasing  both  the  labor  involved  and  the  possibility  of  error. 
The  great  advantage  is  that  it  presents  its  results  assembled  on  the 
basis  of  units  which  have  real  social  significance,  which  the  minor 
civil  division  seldom  has.     This  advantage  is  considered  as  more 
than  compensating  for  the  disadvantage. 

3.  The  actual  service  area  of  each  church  as  indicated  by  the 
residences  of  its  members  and  adherents  was  mapped  and  studied. 
This  was  an  entirely  new  departure  in  rural  surveys. 

Four  chief  processes  were  involved  in  the  actual  field  work  of 
these  surveys: 

1.  The  determination  of  the  community  units  and  of  any  sub- 
sidiary neighborhood  units  included  within  them.     The  community 
boundaries  were  ascertained  by  noting  the  location  of  the  last  family 
on  each  road  leading  out  from  a  given  center  who  regularly  traded 
at  that  center.     These  points,  indicated  on  a  map,  were  connected 
with  each  other  by  straight  lines.    The  area  about  the  given  center 
thus  enclosed  was  regarded  as  the  community. 

2.  The  study  of  the  economic,  social  and  institutional  life  of 
each  community  as  thus  defined. 

3.  The  location  of  each  church  in  the  county,  the  determination 
of  its  parish  area  and  the  detailed  study  of  its  equipment,  finance, 
membership,  organization,  program  and  leadership. 

119 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

4.  The  preparation  of  a  map  showing  in  addition  to  the  usual 
physical  features,  the  boundaries  of  each  community,  the  location, 
parish  area  and  circuit  connections  of  each  church  and  the  residence 
of  each  minister. 

The  following  are  the  more  important  definitions  used  in  the 
making  of  these  surveys  and  the  preparation  of  the  reports : 

GEOGRAPHICAL 

City — a  center  of  over  5,000  population.  Not  included  within 
the  scope  of  these  surveys  except  as  specifically  noted. 

Town — a  center  with  a  population  of  from  2,501  to  5,000. 

Village — a  center  with  a  population  of  from  251  to  2,500. 

Hamlet — any  clustered  group  of  people  not  living  on  farms 
whose  numbers  do  not  exceed  250. 

Open  Country — the  farming  area,  excluding  hamlets  and  other 
centers. 

Country — used  in  a  three-fold  division  of  population  included  in 
scope  of  survey  into  Town,  Village  and  Country.  Includes  Hamlets 
and  Open  Country. 

Town  and  Country — the  whole  area  covered  by  these  surveys, 
i.e.,  all  population  living  outside  of  cities. 

Rural — used  interchangeably  with  Town  and  Country. 

Community — that  unit  of  territory  and  of  population  charac- 
terized by  common  social  and  economic  interests  and  experiences; 
an  "aggregation  of  people  the  majority  of  whose  interests  have  a 
common  center."  Usually  ascertained  by  determining  the  normal 
trade  area  of  each  given  center.  The  primary  social  grouping  of 
sufficient  size  and  diversity  of  interests  to  be  practically  self-sufficing 
in  ordinary  affairs  of  business,  civil  and  social  life. 

Neutral  Territory — any  area  not  definitely  included  within  the 
area  of  one  community.  Usually  an  area  between  two  or  more 
centers  and  somewhat  influenced  by  each  but  whose  interests  are 
so  scattered  that  it  cannot  definitely  be  assigned  to  the  sphere  of 
influence  of  any  one  center. 

Neighborhood — a  recognizable  social  grouping  having  certain 
interests  in  common  but  dependent  for  certain  elemental  needs  upon 
some  adjacent  center  within  the  community  area  of  which  it  is 
located. 

Rural  Industrial — pertaining  to  any  industry  other  than  farming 
within  the  Town  and  Country  area. 

120 


APPENDIX  I 

POPULATION 

Foreigner — refers  to  foreign-born  and  native-born  of  foreign 
parentage. 

New  American — usually  includes  foreign-born  and  native-born 
of  foreign  or  mixed  parentage,  but  sometimes  refers  only  to  more 
recent  immigration.  In  each  case  the  exact  meaning  is  clear  from 
the  context. 

THE   CHURCH 

Parish — the  area  within  which  the  members  and  regular  at- 
tendants of  a  given  church  live. 

Circuit — two  or  more  churches  combined  under  the  direction  of 
one  minister. 

Resident  Pastor — a  church  whose  minister  lives  within  its  parish 
area  is  said  to  have  a  resident  pastor. 

Full-time  Resident  Pastor — a  church  with  a  resident  pastor  who 
serves  no  other  church  and  follows  no  other  occupation  than  the 
ministry  is  said  to  have  a  full-time  resident  pastor. 

Part-time  Pastor — a  church  whose  minister  either  serves  another 
church  also  or  devotes  part  of  his  time  to  some  regular  occupation 
other  than  the  ministry  or  both  is  said  to  have  a  part-time  minister. 

Non-resident  Member — one  carried  on  the  rolls  of  a  given  church 
but  living  too  far  away  to  permit  regular  attendance;  generally, 
any  member  living  outside  the  community  in  which  the  church  is 
located  unless  he  is  a  regular  attendant. 

Inactive  Member- — a  person  on  the  church  roll  who  resides 
within  the  parish  area  of  the  church  but  who  neither  attends  its 
services  nor  contributes  to  its  support. 

Net  Active  Membership — the  resultant  membership  of  a  given 
church  after  the  number  of  non-resident  and  inactive  members  is 
deducted  from  the  total  on  the  church  roll. 

Per  Capita  Contributions  or  Expenditures — the  total  amount 
contributed  or  expended  divided  by  the  number  of  the  net  active 
membership. 

Budget  System — a  church  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  fiscal 
year  makes  an  itemized  forecast  of  the  entire  amount  of  money 
required  for  its  maintenance  during  the  year  as  a  basis  for  a 
canvass  of  its  membership  for  funds  is  said  to  operate  on  a  budget 
system  with  respect  to  its  local  finances.  If  amounts  to  be  raised 
for  denominational  or  other  benevolences  are  included  in  the  fore- 

121 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 

cast  and  canvass,  it  is  said  to  operate  on  a  budget  system  for  all 
moneys  raised. 

Adequate  Financial  System — three  chief  elements  are  recognized 
in  an  adequate  financial  system  and  budget  system,  an  annual  every 
member  canvass  and  the  use  of  envelopes  for  the  weekly  payment 
of  subscriptions. 

Receipts — receipts  have  been  divided  under  three  heads : 

a.  Subscriptions,  that  is  moneys  received   in  payment  of 

annual  pledges. 

b.  Collections,  that  is  money  received  from  free  will  offer- 

ings at  public  services. 

c.  All  other  sources  of  revenue,  chiefly  proceeds  of  enter- 

tainments and  interest  on  endowments. 

Salary  of  Minister — inasmuch  as  some  ministers  receive  in 
addition  to  their  cash  salary  the  free  use  of  a  house  while  others 
do  not,  a  comparison  of  the  cash  salaries  paid  is  misleading.  In 
all  salary  comparisons,  therefore,  the  cash  value  of  a  free  parsonage 
is  arbitrarily  stated  as  $250  a  year  and  that  amount  is  added  to  the 
cash  salary  of  each  minister  with  free  parsonage  privileges.  Thus 
an  average  salary  stated  as  $1,450  is  equivalent  to  $1,200  cash  and 
the  free  use  of  a  house. 


122 


APPENDIX  II 

STATISTICAL  TABLES 
TABLE  I. 

POPULATION   BY   CENSUS    PERIODS    OF   STANISLAUS   AND 
ORANGE  COUNTIES 

Stanislaus 

1920 — 43,557 — per  cent   increase  93.4 

1910 — 22,522 — per  cent   increase  135.8 

1900 —  9,550 — per  cent  decrease  4.9 
1890 — 10,040 

Orange 

1920 — 61,375 — per  cent  increase  78.2 

1910 — 34,436 — per  cent  increase  74.8 

1900 — 19,696 — per  cent  increase  44.9 
1890—13,589 


TABLE  II. 


ECONOMIC  FACTS— 1920  CENSUS 


Orange   County 
Square  Miles,  795 ; 
Acres,  508,800 
4,188 

325,703 
200,945 

82.5% 
11.8% 

88.2% 

7.7% 
85.1% 

8.6% 

$25,528,947 
$6,096 


Item 

Area 

Number  of  Farms 
Acreage  in  Farms 
Improved  Acreage 
Per  Cent.  Owners 
Per  Cent.  Tenants 

Per  Cent.  Owners  among  For- 
eign Born  Farmers 

Per  Cent.  Tenants  among  For- 
eign Born  Farmers 

Per  Cent.  Owners  among  Na- 
tive Born  Farmers 

Per  Cent.  Tenants  among  Na- 
tive Born  Farmers 

Total     Value     of     all      Farm 
Products 

Average    Value    of    Products 
per  Farm 


Stanislaus  County 
Square  Miles,  1450; 

Acres,  928,000 
4,566 
748,678 
477.871 
76.3% 

22.1% 
76.2% 
23% 


20% 
$22,758,641 

$3,754 


123 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 


TABLE  III. 
VALUE  OF  CHURCH  PROPERTY— ORANGE  COUNTY 

Churches  Located  in  Entire 

Town     Village       Country  Rural             City 

Area 

Church  Buildings : 

Number    4             23                  13  40 

Total  Value    $69,000    $95,800         $31,850  $196,650 

Average    Value    17,250        4,165.22        2,450  4.916.25     $14,659 

Parsonages : 

Number    4             15                  10  29 

Total   Value    16,000      49,600           18,400  84,000 

Average  Value  4,000        3.305.66        1,840  2,896.55        5,043 

Other  Buildings : 

Number    i               6                   i  8 

Total   Value    2,500        4,225             3,ooo  9,725 

Average  Value    2,500          704.16        3,000  1,215.63        3,075 


TABLE  IV. 
VALUE  OF  CHURCH   PROPERTY— STANISLAUS  COUNTY 

Churches  Located  in 


Town 

Church  Buildings : 

Number     11 

Total  Value   $176,135 

Average  Value    16,012 

Parsonage : 

Number    8 

Total  Value   39-3CO 

Average  Value   4,912.50 

Other  Buildings : 

Number     I 

Total  Value   2,500 

Average  Value   2,500 


Entire 

Village 

Country 

County 

24 

$101,925 

4,247 

7 
2,621 

42 

$296.410 

7,057 

33,625 
2,241.67 

4 
5,400 
1,350 

27 
78,025 
2,890 

3 
3,100 

0 
0 

4 
5,600 

i,033 

o 

1,400 

TABLE  V. 

HOW  THE  CHURCH  DOLLAR  IS  RAISED— ORANGE  AND  STANIS- 
LAUS COUNTIES 


Amount  Raised 
By  subscription   . . 

By  collection    

By  other  methods 


Toivn 
$  .80 


$1.00 
124 


Churches  Located  in 

Entire 

Village        Country    County 
$  .67  $  .64  $  .70 

.21  .275  .17 

.12  .085  .13 


$1.00 


$1.00 


APPENDIX  II 


TABLE  VI. 

HOW  THE  CHURCH  DOLLAR  IS  SPENT— ORANGE  AND  STANIS- 
LAUS COUNTIES 


Expended  for 

Salaries  of  ministers    

Missions  and  benevolences 
All  other  purposes    


Town 
$  -275 
.38 
•345 

$1.00 


Churches  Located  in 


Village 
$.38 
.265 
•355 

$1.00 


Country 
$  .48 
•33 
.19 

$1.00 


Entire 
County 
$  .36 
•32 
•32 


$1.00 


TABLE  VII. 
PER    CAPITA    GIVING— ORANGE    AND    STANISLAUS    COUNTIES 


A.  Orange  County 


Disbursed  for  Town 

Salaries  of  ministers ...  $  8.90 

Missions  and  benevolences   .  . .     15.37 
All  other  expenses  9.95 


City 

$  578 
9.58 
542 

Totals   $34-22        $39.49        $36.29        $37.54        $20.78 


Churches  Located  in 

Entire 

Village    Country  Rural  Area 
$19.73        $14-27 
6.12          10.80 
10.44          12.47 


$15-24 

9.98 

14.27 


B.  Stanislaus  County 


Disbursed  for  Town 

Salaries  of  ministers  $  7.15 

Missions  and  benevolences  7.54 

All  other  expenses   9.60 


Churches  Located  in 

Entire 

Village   Country  Rural  Area 
$12.28        $  84.1        $  9.23 
9.22  9.61  8.45 

11.43  1.77  9-23 


Totals    $24.29        $32.93        $19.79        $26.91 


TABLE  VIII. 
ANALYSIS  OF  CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP— ORANGE  COUNTY 


Toivn 

Non-resident    80 

Inactive    127 

Active 865 

Total    1072 


Churches  Located  in 
Village      Country 
54 
48 


332 

145 

1815 


2292 


525 
627 


Total 

466 

320 

3205 

3991 


125 


IRRIGATION  AND  RELIGION 


TABLE  IX. 
ANALYSIS   OF   CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP— STANISLAUS   COUNTY 


Non-resident    235 

Inactive    39 

Active • 2335 


Churches  Located  in 
Town        Village      Country 
196  79 

79  77 

1771  640 


Total    2609 


2046 


796 


5451 


TABLE  X. 

ANALYSIS  OF  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  ENROLLMENT  AND 
ATTENDANCE— STANISLAUS  COUNTY 


Located  in 
Town  .... 
Village  .  . . 
Country  .  . 


Total 


Enrollment 


Number  Average 

of.             All  per 

Schools    Schools  School 

i i            2258  205 

25            2487  99 

6             839  104 


5584 


134 


Attendance 


Average    Per  cent 


All  per 

Schools  School 

1666  131 

1722  69 

604  101 


3992 


95 


all 

Schools 

74 

69 

72 


TABLE  XI. 

ANALYSIS  OF  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  ENROLLMENT  AND 
ATTENDANCE— ORANGE  COUNTY 


Located  in 

Town    

Village  . . . 
Country   . . 


Total 


Enrollment 


Attendance 


Number                   Average 

Average    Per  cent 

of             All           per 

All           per            all 

Schools    Schools    School 

Schools    School      Schools 

4            1098            274 

636          159               57-9 

23            3102            135 

2190           95               70.6 

12             892             74 

662           55               74-2 

39 


5092 


3488 


89 


68.5 


126 


APPENDIX  II 


TABLE  XII. 
SUNDAY  SCHOOL  STATISTICS. 

Orange  County      Stanislaus  County 

Number  of  schools  connected  with  churches  39  42 

Total  enrollment 5,092  5,584 

Average  attendance  3,488  3,992 

Number  of  members  living  on  farms 1,825  2,463 

Number  of  schools  with  : 

Efforts  to  increase  attendance  14  18 

Organized  classes  22  12 

Graded  lessons    8  23 

Departments  organized 1 1  19 

Cradle   Roll    12  26 

Home  department    9  15 

Provision  for  leadership  training 3  5 

Teacher  training  class   2  12 

Sunday  school  papers   36  39 

Library    1 1  13 

Regular  mission  study  II  19 

Missionary  offerings   33  40 

Decision  day    16  10 

Sessions  the  whole  year 37  42 

Picnic 31  33 

Special  organizations    7  6 

Classes  holding  socials  19  18 

Social  times  as  a  whole  9  7 

Class  to  prepare  for  church  membership  5  9 

Number  of  pupils  joining  church  in  year..  123,  from  18          266,  from  24 

schools  schools 
Number  of  pupils  entering  Christian  work 

in  past  five  years  15,  from  9  17,  from  1 1 

schools  schools 
Number  of  pupils  entering  Christian  work 

in  past  ten  years  21,  from  10  28,  from  15 

schools  schools 


127 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CENSUS  BUREAU  BULLETINS — 1920  CENSUS 

POPULATION  :  CALIFORNIA 

AGRICULTURE  :  CALIFORNIA 

IRRIGATION  :  CALIFORNIA 
FEDERAL  CENSUS — 1910 
ENCYCLOPEDIA  AMERICANA 
ENCYCLOPEDIA  BRITANNICA 
NEW  INTERNATIONAL  ENCYCLOPEDIA 
HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA — Gunn 

REPORT  OF  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION — 1919-20 
FEDERAL  RELIGIOUS  CENSUS — 1916 
THE  STORY  OF  STANISLAUS  COUNTY — BOARD  OF  TRADE 

ORANGE  COUNTY,  BY  F.  W.  SLEBAUGH,  BOARD  OF  SUPERVISORS,  ORANGE  COUNTY 
REPORT  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA  PANAMA  EXPOSITION  COMMISSION 
REPORTS  OF  ORGANIZATIONS  AND  AGENCIES 
NEWSPAPER  FILES 

CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  JAPANESE,  by  K.  Kanzaki 

A  SCHOOL  SURVEY  OF  ORANGE  COUNTY,  CALIFORNIA,  by  Frances  Smiley 
THE  ANNALS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 
— "Present  Day  Immigration,  with  Special  Reference  to  the  Japanese"— 
January,  1921 — No.  182,  Volume  XVIII. 


128 


UNIQUE  STUDIES  OF  RURAL  AMERICA 
TOWN  AND  COUNTRY  SERIES          TWELVE  VOLUMES 

MADE    UNDER    THE    DIRECTION    OF 

EDMUND  DE  S.  BRUNNER,  PH.D. 

What  the  Protestant  Churches  Are  Doing  and  Can  Do 
for  Rural  America — The  Results  of  Twenty- 
Six     Intensive   County  Surveys 

Description  Publication  Date 

(1)  Church   and   Community    Survey  of 

Salem  County,  N.  J Ready 

(2)  Church    and   Community    Survey   of 

Pend    Oreille     County,     Washing- 
ton             Ready 

(3)  Church   and    Community    Survey   of 

Sedgwick   County,   Kansas    Ready 

(4)  Religion  in  the  Old  and  New  South.         About  Aug.  10 

(5)  The    Old    and    New    Immigrant    on 

the  Land,  as  seen  in  two  Wiscon- 
sin   Counties    About  June  15 

(6)  Rural    Religious    Tendencies    in   the 

Middle  West    About  June  10 

(7)  Outstanding  Problems  in  the  North- 

ern Colonial  Area    About  June    7 

(8)  Irrigation  and  Religion,  a  study  of 

two    prosperous    California    coun- 
ties           Ready 

(9)  The  Church  on  the  Changing  Fron- 

tier            About  June  15 

(10)  The  Rural  Church  Before  and  Af- 
ter the  War.  Comparative  Studies 
of  Two  Surveys  About  July  25 

(n)  Social  Groups  and  the  Country 

Church  About  June  10 

(12)  The  Town  and  Country  Church  in 

the  United  States  About  Nov.  30 

"They  are  fine  pieces  of  work  and  examples  of  what  we  need  to 
have  done  on  a  large  scale." — Dr.  Charles  A.  Ellwood,  Dept.  of 
Sociology,  University  of  Missouri. 

"I  am  heartily  appreciative  of  these  splendid  results." — Rev. 
Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Genl.  Secy.,  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches 
of  Christ  in  America. 

Published  by  GEORGE  H.  DORAN   COMPANY,   New  York 

FOR 

COMMITTEE  ON  SOCIAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  SURVEYS 

III    FIFTH   AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


A     000  892  143     9 


